


Beyond

by crimson_calamity



Series: gays in space [2]
Category: GOT7
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-05-31 08:07:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 22,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19421914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crimson_calamity/pseuds/crimson_calamity
Summary: Sometimes, even when everything feels hopeless, things can begin to look up. Things that seem impossible find a way to happen and everything will fall into place.Or, the first of Jaebum’s voyages among endless stars.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> so, a year and a half after antique boy (I am. truly sorry for the huge delay :'))) I present to u: the sequel. this is going to be basically pure space exploration fluff and is truly self indulgent and soft and sweet and I hope you all enjoy!! as for antique boy, this is so heavily influenced by the book "a long way to a small angry planet" by becky chambers so!! go read it!! and the two sequels!! they're so good!!!! and I hope u all enjoy this story too!! but if you haven't read [antique boy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13381905) please go do so first!! else a lot of this may not make sense haha <3

Farla is incredible. It might just be Jaebum's inexperience with planets talking, but right now, it’s the most incredible thing he's ever seen - barring the ridiculous haul from a few tendays ago - and they're just on their way to Jackson's dig-site, sat in the back of a wheezing old truck with a digsite worker and a pair of tourists. Jinyoung, still viciously motion-sick, is up beside the driver with his eyes screwed shut but Mark's sat next to Jaebum in the back having graciously given up the window seat so Jaebum can gawk out of it, though Jaebum suspects he gets more enjoyment out of watching him embarrass himself with said gawking than he would actually looking out the window.

The road is gravel, bumpy and unpleasant but fields stretch either side of it, swaying yellow stalks to the left and low leafy plants in rows to the right. The sky is cloudless, blue from horizon to horizon with the sun high above them and the mountains growing steadily closer; Jackson's temple is set into a mountainside, apparently carved out of the dark rock directly with some of it buried under rubble from a landslide.

"How are you doing?" Mark asks quietly, nudging Jaebum's arm with his shoulder. It startles him out of his reverie and his face warms, turning to Mark with wide eyes. He doesn’t seem offended by the lack of attention Jaebum's been paying to him, an endeared little smile on his face and his eyes soft and amused.

"Fine." Jaebum would like to say he didn't squeak that but, well, he very much did. Mark's smile gets wider and he leans up against Jaebum's side, head resting on his shoulder and hand finding his knee, squeezing gently.

"It's pretty cool, right?" He murmurs, half teasing but there's genuine wonder there too. Bright red at this point, Jaebum doesn't answer, just turns back to the window and props his chin on his palm, though it's a little harder to concentrate on the countryside rushing past with Mark a warm weight pressed against his side.

Fields blend into light woodland then bare rock, the truck trundling its way up the winding road into the mountain range; Jaebum’s breathless looking out over the view, the red-brown woodland just below them seamlessly graduating into the greens and yellows of the fields that stretch all the way back to the small forest surrounding the shuttle port - he can see the  _ shuttle port _ from here - and beyond that into more fields. A sparkling grey city clings to the skyline, all jagged edges and jutting skyscrapers.

"Mark." Jaebum breathes, grabbing his hand and nodding out the window. There's shifting next to him then a quiet chuckle.

"It's a good view." He says, a grin in his voice. Jaebum frowns back at him - good isn't quite the word he'd use, incredible maybe, or stunning - only to find Mark is staring, not out of the window, but at him. It doesn't connect for a second, then his cheeks heat up again and he cringes, covering his eyes with his free hand.

"Wh- since when have you been so cheesy?" Jaebum does not whine that, he  _ doesn't _ . Mark just bursts into laughter, that high-pitched squeaky one that always has Jaebum's heart doing backflips.

"Since always, I just never had a reason to be before now." He manages to get out between giggles, bumping their shoulders together again. Huffing, Jaebum takes his hand back and folds his arms to glower out of the window in embarrassment; he puts up a token resistance when Mark wiggles a hand between his bicep and his side but relents soon enough, allowing his arm to be pulled back and linked with Mark's.

"You're an idiot." He grumbles, but it just sounds fond. Mark chuckles again.

"I'm your idiot though." And well, Jaebum can't really argue with that, can he?

The rest of the journey is uneventful if awe-inspiring, the mountains even more imposing this close and the road slightly terrifying as it ventures along narrow outcroppings that fall away into almost sheer drops to the ravine below, but soon enough they round a bend and face Jackson's dig-site. The ruin is incredible, buildings and paths cut into the mountainside itself just as Jackson had described, with tents and caravans littering the plateau just below the sprawling structures.

The truck rumbles to a stop outside the edge of this campsite and Jinyoung immediately rips the door open, practically falling out of it. Shaking his head, Mark stands up, grabbing Jaebum’s hand and dragging him outside as soon as he unclips his seatbelt. The reason for his haste soon becomes apparent; there's an inhuman screech from the nearest caravan and a blur of blue, then a bang and Jinyoung's fallen back against the truck door with a sobbing Jackson clinging to him. Jinyoung plays it off a little bit cooler, just hugs his husband back but Jaebum knows him well enough to know he's only hiding his face in his shoulder like that so he can cry too, just a little more subtly. Biting back a laugh, Mark tugs on Jaebum's hand, leading him away from the pair and over towards the campsite.

"Let's give them a minute." He says very unnecessarily. Jaebum just rolls his eyes at him and speeds up to walk next to him rather than behind him, their joined hands swinging between them. A Farlan in a blue uniform similar to the overalls Jackson's wearing nods at them as they approach, bowing politely and blinking wide eyes at them when they straighten, crest rippling with yellow and green.

"Welcome to Temple Isakr. Is this your first visit?" They ask in slightly accented Common, lacing their long-fingered hands together in front of them. Mark nods and Jaebum smiles sheepishly. "My name is Eri. I work on the dig-site, but I can show you to the visitor centre. It's not very big I'm afraid." Their crest turns an embarrassed pink.

"Eri!" Jackson calls behind them, bounding over and dragging Jinyoung behind him. "Don't worry about these guys, they're with me!" Eri puts their hands on their hips and bows again.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realise." Jackson waves away their apologies, beaming.

"No need to apologise! There are some others who need help over there." He nods over at the other pair who'd been in the truck with Jaebum and Mark. "But first you need to meet my husband!" He pushes Jinyoung in front of him, who just laughs and bows to Eri, who quickly bows back.

"Jackson talks about you all the time." Is all they say before they bustle off to help the other visitors. Both Jackson and Jinyoung turn a little pink at that but Jackson shakes it off first and rounds on Mark and Jaebum.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?!" He yells, punching Jaebum in the shoulder. Wincing both at that and the volume, Jaebum shrugs, glaring over him at a snickering Jinyoung.

"I only knew I was coming yesterday." He protests weakly but Jackson just raises both eyebrows pointedly and gestures back at Jinyoung.

"So did Jinyoung!" Shaking his head fondly, Jinyoung pats Jackson on the shoulder, lets his hand trail down his arm to tangle their fingers together.

"Relax, I forgot too," he says soothingly, "we were all a bit preoccupied with, well-" He nods towards Mark's and Jaebum's joined hands. Jackson seems baffled for a moment, then his expression clears into something delighted and Jaebum's stumbling backwards a couple of steps with an archaeologist hanging off him, one arm around Jaebum's neck and the other around Mark's.

"It took you guys long enough!" Is screeched into Jaebum's ear far too close for comfort but Jaebum doesn't shove him off - yet at least - just pats him on the back and grins at Mark's high-pitched laughter. Jinyoung looks like he's close to tears again, staring at the back of Jackson's head with the biggest smile, but he just wrinkles his nose at Jaebum's knowing look and steps over to poke Jackson's shoulder.

"Stop strangling them baby, don't you want to show us your work?" Jinyoung knows his husband very well; Jackson immediately leaps off them and beckons for them to follow, shouting excitedly and jogging off towards the temple excavation. Heaving a sigh, Jinyoung runs to catch up to him, dragging him into walking at a more reasonable speed as Mark and Jaebum share a look that's equal parts fond and exasperated before heading after them. They both hang back a little though, leaving the pair to catch up as they walk; beaming ear to ear, Jinyoung looks happier than he has in half a standard, since Jackson's planetside residency began to be honest and Jackson's practically glowing, bouncing from foot to foot as he walks and gesturing wildly as he talks.

"Why hasn't Jinyoung visited before now?" Mark asks quietly, is watching the pair with a broad grin when Jaebum glances at him.

"He didn't think of it apparently. Plus he has been busy." Jaebum replies equally quietly. Mark shakes his head but lapses back into silence, looking around the campsite. It's quite busy, people bustling around to and from caravans being used as offices and a couple of big marquees set up near the centre of the camp. Several people are crouched around big buckets and troughs of water, scrubbing dirt off vases and broken tiles and small tools, with big mats spread out on which to put said things to dry once they're clean. A few of them glance up as Jackson passes, offering a smile or a wave or a chitter in greeting.

The excavation itself is a little further up the mountain, reached by a fairly steep but by now well-travelled set of stone steps. It's here that it dawns on Jaebum that he's really not as fit as he could be; both Mark and Jackson have no trouble trotting up the steps whereas he and Jinyoung - to his relief he's not shamed alone - end up red-faced and utterly out-of-breath by the end of the climb.

"You okay?" Mark asks far too cheerfully as Jaebum doubles over and braces his hands on his knees, trying to will his heart to stop trying to burst its way from his chest. Jackson is even less sympathetic, falling over himself laughing at Jinyoung who has collapsed to the ground with his head between his knees and is swearing pitifully.

"Yes." Jaebum wheezes when he can speak again, straightening up to glower at Mark, who just smiles innocently and turns away to look over the ruins and, well, Jaebum's willing to overlook his teasing for the moment because  _ wow _ .

The temple complex stretches ahead of them, the dark stone buildings carved straight out of the mountainside leading up in a winding strip up a shallow incline to a larger structure, decorated with columns and coloured tiles visible even from here. The smaller buildings are decorated too, mosaics depicting all sorts of images; the mountain range, the view of the forest, scenes of festivities and animals and the sea. It's stunning.

"Come on, I'll show you the temple." Jackson says eagerly, hauling Jinyoung to his feet and dragging him along behind him. He grumbles a bit but falls into step next to him, sidling up close to his side and holding his arm, Mark and Jaebum trailing a few paces behind them. "This place is a monastery town," Jackson explains as they walk, gesturing at the small buildings, all about large enough to hold one or two rooms at most, "it's where the monks would live when they weren't performing services at the temple or visiting the local area." Jackson continues in this vein, describing the history and religion of this monastery and Jaebum really does try to listen, but the rest of it is just so distracting that he keeps zoning in and out of his spiel. For once Mark isn't laughing at him though, he too is looking around with wide eyes and a wondering grin, hand finding Jaebum's again and squeezing gently.

It should probably be about a ten minute walk up to the temple, but it takes them the better part of half an hour, Jackson stopping intermittently to talk to some of the other workers and point out interesting parts of the excavation - particularly well-preserved mosaics, buildings with some remnants of furniture in them, the ruin of a fountain in the middle of what must have been a town square of sorts - but they're not unwelcome pauses. Jaebum's entirely overwhelmed if he's being honest, still working through the fact he's not on the station anymore let alone managing to process this incredible ruin and all the interesting information Jackson's dumping onto them. Ironically, Mark's constant presence next to him and the reassuring grip on his hand is not actually helping - that's far too new too - but he also very much doesn't want to let go.

"You okay?" Mark has always been too observant for his - and Jaebum's - own good. Smiling vaguely, Jaebum nods, bumping shoulders with him as they walk.

"I'm fine." He mumbles, staring at the building Jackson's pointing out without really seeing it. All of that fear simmering since he'd seen the shuttle suddenly seems to want to bubble out of his throat; what is he doing here? This isn't him, this isn't where he should be, he's meant to be on Lanzhou Station, making sure he doesn't lose his entire life. Logically he knows it's fine, that he's not going to lose anything, he owns his shop now and Youngjae's looking after it and he's going to be fine, but it's not really a logical fear, one born of years of struggling with this exact thing.

Mark tugs him to a stop, frowning at him worriedly - it's only now that Jaebum realises he's starting to hyperventilate, a revelation that comes to him remarkably calmly considering everything - then looks over to Jackson and Jinyoung who are now chatting to a tall Grufaer woman in dusty overalls as though about to call over to them but reconsiders it when he sees they're not paying them any attention. Instead he just leads Jaebum off the path between two buildings and lays a hand on his shoulder, squeezes gently.

"What's wrong?" He asks quietly, eyebrows pulling down anxiously. Well, this is embarrassing; Jaebum looks down, face lighting up bright red but he can barely breathe around the lump in his throat, let alone talk past it. "Hey-" Mark's hand slides higher, cupping the back of Jaebum's neck- "talk to me, come on." Jaebum shakes his head mutely and Mark sighs slightly but pulls him closer, wrapping both arms around him and hooking his chin over his shoulder. Squeezing his eyes shut, Jaebum hugs him back, forcing his breathing to slow down and gradually relaxing into the soothing strokes of Mark's hand up and down his back.

"Sorry." Jaebum mumbles when he's collected himself, anxieties bundled up and pushed to the back of his head for now. Mark makes a disgruntled noise and shifts Jaebum back, frowning up at him.

"You have nothing to apologise for," he says firmly, squeezing his shoulders gently, "what's wrong?" Jaebum looks down, flushing bright red. "Hey, don't-" Mark tips his chin back up, holding it there so he can't look away from him- "please talk to me?" He falters in his resolve, asking more than demanding, concern written across his face. Worrying really doesn't suit Mark, he's supposed to be the carefree one after all.

"I was just- thinking. About my shop and things," he says reluctantly, taking the hand on his face and pulling it down, "I know I don't really need to worry about it anymore but it's- hard not to." He looks down, trying to will down his blush even a little bit. "I'm just... scared." It's sort of nice to admit that out loud but it's also mortifying. Thankfully Mark doesn't laugh - not that Jaebum would really have expected him to but it's a relief anyway - just laces their fingers together and squeezes gently.

"It's- I know I, um, said the opposite before-" he winces, hanging his head- "but it's okay to be scared. It really is, it's only natural that you would be." He pauses, seems to be struggling for what to say next. "But I suppose you just need to remember that you don't need to be scared anymore. And I mean, you could probably call Youngjae later to ask how the shop's doing?" He offers sheepishly, clearly not sure of what to do; his shoulders are a little hunched and he looks a mixture of terribly guilty and achingly worried. Jaebum takes pity on him and smiles slightly.

"I know. And I will but I- just got lost in it for a minute." Mark nods, still sad and worried; he looks like a kicked puppy. Jaebum pulls him into another hug, burying his face into the crook of his neck. "I'm okay now." He mumbles into Mark's skin, breathing out slowly when his arms come up to hug him back tightly. They just stand there for a minute, breathing gradually synchronizing, then Mark pulls back, both hands cupping Jaebum's face.

"Can I kiss you?" He asks softly, grinning when Jaebum flushes and nods with a sheepish smile. He pushes up on his toes just a little, pulling Jaebum down to meet him halfway; it's barely a peck really, Mark's warm if slightly chapped lips barely lingering for more than a few seconds but it has Jaebum's stomach dissolving into a mess of butterflies anyway. Thankfully he seems comparably flustered too, flushing all the way down to his neck and unable to make actual eye contact - he's steadfastly looking somewhere around Jaebum's nose - but he links their fingers again and jerks his head towards the path. "You okay to go?" He asks, grinning ear to ear when Jaebum just nods mutely, feeling about as red-faced as it's possible for a human to be.

Jinyoung is openly staring at them as they emerge, brow furrowed, but Jackson's deep in conversation once again, this time with another Farlan, taller than Eri with a slightly larger crest. He notices them as they approach though, waving them over and gesturing at the Farlan.

"This is Pai, she's one of my team!" Ah yes, Jackson's team of archaeologists. He would enthuse about them for ages whenever he called. Crest fluttering a happy pink, Pai bows.

"Wonderful to meet you." She says, accent pronounced and pulling on the vowels. Mark and Jaebum both bow back, introducing themselves; she hums, hands clasping in front of her. "Jackson likes to tell us about his friends all the time, it feels like I know you already." Her crest ripples an amused yellow as Jackson just grins and shrugs.

"What can I say, I have cool friends." He winks at Jinyoung who just rolls his eyes, though he's stepped up against his side with his hand curled into Jackson's shirt at his waist. Pai huffs, the Farlan equivalent of laughing.

"It seems you do." Her crest turns a pastel green as she cocks her head. "Are you heading up to the temple?" Jackson beams and nods excitedly, grabbing Jinyoung's arm and bouncing in place. "Would you mind if I walked with you? I'm heading into the basement, Dana wants to make headway with translating some of the wall scriptures." She cocks her head, grey rippling through her crest but it clears back to a sunny yellow when Jackson immediately agrees, leading the group of them towards the large building. Jinyoung carefully extricates himself from Jackson's side while he's distracted chattering at Pai - and it is  _ at _ her, she barely gets a word in edgeways but she doesn't seem to be trying too hard - and drops back to fall into step next to Jaebum.

"You okay?" He asks quietly, though he doesn't take his eyes off Jackson. Flushing all over again, Jaebum mumbles an affirmative, ignoring both Jinyoung's worried glance and Mark's shoulder bump in the hopes he'll drop it and leave him to stew in his embarrassment alone but of course he doesn't. "Are you sure? Jackson won't be offended if you want to cut out for the rest of the cycle." Now that's nice of him but also ridiculous.

"No, I'm fine. I want to come with you." Jaebum insists, bristling defensively; Jinyoung rolls his eyes and punches him lightly in the arm.

"Don't sulk-" Jaebum sneers at him- "just be grateful I stopped Jackson running over and freaking out that you were upset." Eyebrows raised pointedly, he says this over his shoulder as he speeds up to grab Jackson's hand again. Well, that's something Jaebum supposes, though he's probably going to get the third degree from him later. Mark's pointedly looking away, lips pressed together like he's hiding a smile; why must all of Jaebum's friends be like this?

The monastery is utterly incredible; Jaebum's mouth drops open as they approach and basically doesn't close the entire time, but this time he's not the only one astounded by what he's seeing. Mark's eyes are sparkling in a way Jaebum's never really seen before, smiling so wide his cheeks must be aching but for once Jaebum's not actually staring at him. Jinyoung's similarly gobsmacked, trailing behind Jackson and barely even nodding along to his rambling about the catacombs and the east wing excavation and the stained glass windows intact in the main chapel - they aren't even in the main chapel, they're just in the entryway but it's just breathtaking, all high vaulted ceilings with intricately carved columns stretching all the way up and cracked marble floor bearing the remnants of beautiful curling designs. Archways lead off to both sides towards the wings of the building they'd seen as they arrived, one half-buried under dark rubble. There's a larger doorway ahead of them, the huge stone doors set half-open with more people bustling in and out with tools and artefacts.

"Come on, you need to see the best part!" Jackson wheedles when they slow to a crawl, just drinking in the sights of the entrance hall. Pai shakes her head amusedly, crest rippling with yellow and pink.

"Give your friends a minute, Jackson, this is enough of a sight." She pats Jackson's shoulder and heads for one of the side doors, bowing her head at the rest of them as she leaves. Jackson huffs and folds his arms, but stops protesting, begrudgingly smiling when Jinyoung's hand finds his.

"This is amazing, baby." Jinyoung says to him, going on to say something else but Jaebum's not really listening, having dragged Mark across the room - he forgot they were still holding hands and it's not as though Mark protested - to examine the carvings stretching up one of the walls. Writing interspersed with occasional pictures, it's all in Farlan but in a dialect Jaebum doesn’t recognise - what with the station being so close to the planet, Jaebum’s managed to pick up some modern Farlan just by osmosis - with some of the characters utterly unfamiliar and others slightly different to their modern equivalents but still recognisable. The pictures are abstract, a lot of curving lines and shapes but it's easy to recognise the mountains, the monastery itself, the skyline visible from the plateau, etched long before the construction of the cities in the far distance.

"Wow." Is all Mark says, soft and wondering; Jaebum echoes that sentiment but his voice has decided he's too in awe to speak, so he just nods mutely, staring up at the carvings.

"Guys, come on!" Jackson whines from behind them; sharing a long-suffering look, Jaebum and Mark follow after him as he bounds for the huge doors, Jinyoung stumbling along behind him to try and keep up.

If the entrance was incredible, the inner hall is on another level entirely. It's utterly huge, stretching up to the stained glass ceiling - the entire ceiling is glass, supported by a webbing of stone and metal, the sunlight filtering down in blues and greens and purples through the coloured sections. But the centre of the room is dominated by an enormous statue of a Farlan woman in long intricately decorated robes, the painted colours long faded but still visible in places. She has a veil over her face, but her crest is flared and her arms are spread wide as though welcoming them inside. There are a few people bustling around the base of her robes, talking and taking notes onto datapads.

"Dea, goddess of endings and new beginnings." Jackson says, spinning around to mirror her pose with a bright grin. Seems appropriate. Approaching the statue, it's apparent that the decorations on her robes are some sort of metal, winding and twisting down the stone in valleys carved into it such that the surface is flush against the rest of the stone, shimmering in the tinted light. "Pretty cool, right? Now you see why I talk about it so much." Jackson says smugly, stopping next to Jaebum with his arms folded and eyebrows pointedly raised. Jaebum just nods, gaping up at the towering statue. "It's five thousand standards old." Wow.

"How was something like this constructed?" Jaebum asks when he can speak again; Jackson's eyes light up and he grabs Jaebum's arm, practically dragging him over the wall behind the statue. It's fairly close to it but not actually touching and Jackson points out a series of divots cut into the wall, stretching up all the way to the ceiling.

"These are evidence of where the scaffold platforms were set when the statue was carved and here-" he pulls him over to a dip in the floor, then points up at the ceiling- "or up there I guess, is the remains of a pulley system that would move things and people up and down the platforms." Jaebum peers upwards but they're too far from the ceiling to see what Jackson's talking about.

"How many people would have worked on something like this? How long would it take?" Jaebum asks incredulously - a project like this is utterly unfathomable to him. Jackson's practically bouncing in place as he answers.

"Well we can only theorise at the moment, we're waiting on translation of the scriptures on the basement walls, but several hundred people would have worked on this-" he pats the statue, gazing up at it with wide-eyed wonder- "and it would have taken decades at least." He grins at Jaebum. "Pai was telling me about it, there used to be a tradition of any pilgrims making their way to a temple to spend time helping with the temple construction and the carving of the idol." Jaebum's mouth drops open again.

"Do all the temples have statues like this?" Jackson nods eagerly; that's a lot of temples, Farla is covered in them, dotted across every continent.

"The ones for this religion do at least. The oldest is seven thousand standards old." That's genuinely awe-inspiring. Jaebum looks up at the statue again; he's standing next to something that's  _ five thousand standards _ old.

"Are you guys done or are we still archaeology widows?" Jinyoung says dryly from a few metres away, though despite his crossed arms he looks anything but irritated, just fondly amused. Jaebum hadn't even noticed Mark isn't next to him anymore until he sees him stood next to Jinyoung grinning broadly with his hands in the pockets of his bomber jacket. Sticking his tongue out at his husband, Jackson just grabs Jaebum's arm again just above the elbow and pulls him towards one of the doors branching out from this room.

"No and you're not invited to be excited with us!" Jackson yells; Jaebum has no choice but to go with it, shooting a mildly alarmed glance over his shoulder at the pair of them, who both burst into laughter.

While this temple is utterly amazing and Jaebum genuinely wants to hear everything Jackson has to say about it, he is also only human and as such is completely exhausted, what from not being able to sleep the night-cycle before - too nervous and excited about this trip - the general stress and anxiety of the whole situation and also from Jackson not knowing the meaning of the phrase 'slow down'. As such, he all but collapses face-first into the narrow bed in the small guest caravan the expedition has provided for him and Mark - Jinyoung obviously sharing with Jackson - with a long groan. He almost bruises his nose with how hard the mattress is, but right now it's absolutely perfect.

"You okay there?" Mark asks mildly, perching on the identical bed on the other side of the caravan with his legs crossed and pressing his lips together to hide a smile when Jaebum turns his face enough to narrow one eye at him. He just blinks innocently and cocks his head; Jaebum turns his face back into the mattress with a noncommittal grunt. "Don't fall asleep or you'll miss dinner." That is true. But sleep just sounds like such a good idea right now. He's got time for a nap, it's an hour or so until the time Jackson told them to meet him at the canteen marquee they have set up here for all the workers and visitors.

"Just wake me up before you go." He says this hoping it's not completely lost into the mattress and determinedly shuts his eyes again. There's a quiet laugh then a murmured agreement and Jaebum is asleep in seconds.

True to his word, Jaebum's woken somewhat unceremoniously some time later by a gentle shaking of his shoulder; blinking blearily, he gingerly sits up, wincing at the headache pounding at him, skull feeling like it's filled with cotton wool. Maybe the nap was a bad idea.

"Feeling better?" Mark asks quietly, smiling at him from his perch next to Jaebum's pillow. Squinting at him, Jaebum grumbles wordlessly, rubbing sleep from his eyes and shoving his hair off his forehead. "We're due to meet Jackson in about fifteen minutes, but I figured you'd probably need to wake up for a bit before then." That is a fair assumption. Mark shuffles a little closer, lacing his hands in his lap and trying to bite down a grin as Jaebum yawns and shakes his head to clear it, blinking hard.

"What?" Jaebum mutters, eyeing him suspiciously but he just smiles sweetly, eyes wide and innocent - Jaebum is not fooled. He also becomes very conscious of the fact he's probably somewhat dishevelled and in all likelihood has pressure marks from the sheets on his face or something; cheeks heating up, he ruffles his hair into an approximation of a proper shape, clears his throat and looks away.

"What do you think of Farla, then?" Mark asks, excitement brimming underneath the measured tone of his voice, eyes raking Jaebum's face eagerly when he glances up. Cursing the butterflies squirming in his stomach - surely he should be over that by now, they are together now after all but apparently no one told his nerves that - Jaebum breathes a laugh, tugging the sleeves of his hoodie down over his hands.

"I don't think I have the words to describe it." He mumbles, unable to help smiling too.

"Yeah, I've never managed to find any either." Mark murmurs, scooting closer and taking Jaebum's hand after a barely perceptible pause. "I'm... Really glad you could finally come with me." He's looking away when Jaebum's head snaps up but his ear and what Jaebum can see of his cheek are pink.

"Thank you for waiting so long." Jaebum replies just as quietly, making a real concerted effort not to look away too as his instincts scream to when Mark glances over in surprise. He blinks once, then grins, wide and showing off his sharp canines.

"I'd have waited longer. As long as I had to." Heart pounding like it's trying to beat from his chest, Jaebum finds himself tongue-tied, lost as to how to respond to that but Mark just keeps smiling and squeezes his hand even as his face reddens even more. Jaebum's stricken for what feels like ten minutes, but manages to mentally slap himself out of it and lets himself act on instinct for once; Mark lets out a short breath through his nose when Jaebum kisses him - this is the first time Jaebum's initiated it, he thinks - but he seemingly scrambles to respond before Jaebum can get discouraged, free hand cupping his jaw and thumb stroking down his cheek gently. It doesn't last very long, but it's sweet and warm and Jaebum's stomach flips over in the best possible way and Mark looks slightly dazed when they come apart, blinking quickly before smiling and looking down bashfully.

"We should, um-" Jaebum clears his throat, plucking at his hair again- "we should probably go find Jinyoung and Jackson, right?" Mark clears his throat too and nods quickly, jumping to his feet and pulling Jaebum up to practically drag him to the door of the caravan.

The sun is starting to set, not quite dipping below the mountains just yet but the deep orange light casts long shadows behind them as they leave. It's still fairly busy, workers still bustling about and cleaning things off in the marquees under strings of lights looped along the supports.

Mark seems to know where he's going, leading Jaebum through the camp and past several caravans to an open area littered with benches and bordered at the back by a large row of marquees under which tables are set out, covered in dishes laden with food. Lots of the benches are full and it's from one of these that there is a familiar shout and frantic waving.

“We're over here!” Jackson calls, beaming with Jinyoung next to him with a fond smile on his face. Their bench is not full, but there are a couple of others sat with them, of whom Jaebum only recognises Pai. “You met Pai and this is Dana-" he gestures to another human, a cheerful looking woman dressed in bright yellows and oranges scribbling into a notebook- “and Rhordin.” Rhordin, a fairly young Draxaran, nods and waves.

“Call me Din, everyone does.” They say amicably, scratching their ridged forehead. Mark beams and introduces himself and thankfully Jaebum too, who's never been great at meeting new people, then Jackson hops to his feet and drags Jinyoung up with him.

“Come on, let's get some food!” Laughing, Jinyoung stumbles after Jackson with a helpless look back over his shoulder, but everyone here seems to be used to Jackson's shenanigans so no one goes to his aid. Din and Pai clamber up too and head after them, chattering between themselves but Dana stays seated, still scrawling. Both Mark and Jaebum hover awkwardly for a moment, not sure if they should wait for her but then she flaps a hand at them.

“Go on, I'll get something in a second.” She immediately goes back to writing. With a shrug, Jaebum and Mark head after the group, falling into line behind them at the buffet tables. Pai looks over her shoulder and nods, crest rippling yellow.

“Make sure to get some haerkn dumplings, they're in season at the moment.” Jaebum nods like he has any idea what that is and for once Mark seems equally baffled, but makes sure to grin and nod too. Din chuckles and slings an arm around Pai’s neck.

“They're the little square parcel things. They are really good though.” They chime in and Pai rumbles, crest flashing greenish then fading to pink when Din squeezes her shoulders and they both turn to the front again, falling into quiet conversation. Mark waggles his eyebrows with a knowing grin when Jaebum glances back at him.

Dinner passes remarkably quickly considering the veritable mountain of foodstuffs he’d ended up piling his plate with under direction from Pai, Jackson and Mark - who’d basically got all the stuff Jaebum didn't so he could try a bit of everything between the two plates - as Din and Dana - once she'd emerged from her translations - spend most of it wringing every detail they can from him about his Terran artefacts. Apparently word of his sale to the Collective has even spread down here and, well, it's understandable that a bunch of archaeologists would be interested in antiques. Dana also very enthusiastically explains her current preoccupation and ends up teaching Jaebum most of the ancient Farlan alphabet between mouthfuls of bread, reading him the section she's midway through translating; an old legend about a young woman pulling the mountains out of the ground.

Distracted as he is, Jaebum doesn't even notice it's dark until he looks up from Dana’s notebook and gets briefly blinded by looking into one of the floodlights set up around the camp, now switched on and very bright. Blinking hard, he glances around, smiling unconsciously when he spots Jinyoung dozing off against Jackson's shoulder as he chatters to Mark and Pai quietly, very carefully keeping still so he doesn't disturb him. Mark catches Jaebum’s eye and smiles, jerking his head away from the table and raising his eyebrows questioningly; Jaebum nods quickly, mumbling goodbyes to everyone and standing up. For some reason, Jackson looks very knowing, flashing Jaebum a smug grin as he heads away with Mark.

“Come for a walk with me?” Mark asks softly, offering his hand. “It won’t be far, I promise.” He says this bit with an amused grin and Jaebum huffs, glad it’s dark so his flush is less obvious. He does take Mark’s hand though.

“Okay.” It’s worth it to see him beam and practically bounce with each step as he drags him away from the canteen area. He leads him away from the entire camp in fact, making to go towards the ruins but turning off at the last moment to skirt around the lip of the plateau. It’s quite a narrow path in fact, lit by lights attached to the rock and leading into a fairly steep drop off which, for Jaebum who’s now realising he hasn’t actually had much experience with heights, is actually a little terrifying, but it soon widens out again into a small outcropping with, bizarrely, nothing here but a bench. Just a regular metal bench in the middle of the space with another light on the floor next to it and it’s to this that Mark leads him.

“Sit down.” He says eagerly, plopping next to him when he obeys a little dubiously.

“What-” he jumps when Mark turns the light off, plunging them into near complete darkness- “what are you doing?” Mark just giggles and grabs his hand, scooting up as close as he can.

“Just wait. Tell me when your eyes have adjusted.” Fidgeting nervously, Jaebum looks around, trying to peer through the greyness. There’s a little bit of light filtering around the corner from the path, but it’s not enough to see anything beyond vague shapes. Soon enough though, his eyes do start making sense of the darkness and he can make out the edge of the outcropping, their linked hands in Mark’s lap, Mark’s expectant expression, though the last is a little hard to discern. 

“I can see as much as I’ll ever see I guess.” He mumbles, frowning at Mark’s pleased smile; he leans forwards, pecks Jaebum’s lips briefly and Jaebum’s about to protest - he didn’t have to turn the light off to kiss him - but then he just raises his free hand and points one finger upwards at the sky. Automatically Jaebum looks up; his mouth drops open, shoulders slumping from their nervous tension. 

Stars. So many stars litter the ink-black sky, white and blue and reddish points winking down at them, some clustered together and more spread out, hundreds of thousands spanning from horizon to horizon. A paler swatch cuts its way across the zenith, clouds of pinks and purples and Jaebum starts shivering; that’s the Milky Way, the galaxy itself and it’s right there. It’s right above them and it’s not on a screen or seen through a window, it’s right  _ up there _ . 

“A couple of the other planets in this system should be visible tonight, but I don’t know when they’re due to come up,” Mark says apologetically, like he has anything to be apologetic about, “and it’s apparently going to get kind of cold but I figured we could just stay for a bit and see how it goes-” He’s rambling, clearly nervous considering he never talks this much usually but Jaebum doubts his voice would work even if he had the wherewithal to string together some words of reassurance so he just squeezes his hand tightly without taking his eyes off the sky. It’s enough that he falls silent, if only for a moment. “Are you okay?” Yes, yes he’s okay, but he can’t say that right now so settles for nodding, shivering hard enough that his teeth are chattering together; Mark hums dubiously and shuffles even closer, tentatively wrapping an arm around his waist and rubbing his back soothingly, grabbing Jaebum’s hand again with the other. Jaebum’s neck is already starting to ache and he’s probably cutting off the blood to Mark’s fingers with his vise grip on it and he might be about to embarrass himself and start crying a little bit but it might all be worth it because he can see the stars in person for the first time in his life and they are  _ utterly  _ beyond compare. 

“Thank you.” He eventually manages to choke out, still staring upwards. It must sound as strangled as it felt coming out because Mark makes a worried noise and leans away a bit and then there's a hand on his face, fingers brushing his cheek.

“Wh- what's wrong? Why are you crying?” Mark whispers tentatively; there it is. “I-I’m sorry, I didn't mean to upset you, I thought-" 

“Mark,” Jaebum breathes, finally managing to tear his eyes away from the sky to blink hard and look at him; he's frowning slightly, so worried and guilty that his eyes are glistening suspiciously in what little light there is, “I'm not upset. I'm-" he looks back up again, presses trembling lips together as fresh tears well up at the sight of endless stars- “I'm happy. I never thought- Thank you.” His voice cracks. Mark lets out a shaking breath.

“You're welcome.” Is all he says, voice thick and trembling too before he cuddles up to Jaebum's side again and lays his head on his shoulder


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little bit shorter than the last bc there was no other place to cut it so im sorry for that;; next chapter will be a bit longer again <3 enjoy!!

They stay there for a long time, long enough that Jaebum’s neck cracks when he finally looks down at Mark’s unhappy whine. It’s then he notices how hard they’re both shivering; it’s now very cold.

“S-sorry, we should probably go back now, right?” Jaebum stutters through chattering teeth, laughing nervously when Mark bursts into giggles.

“Probably. Jinyoung will yell at us if we get sick.” He hops to his feet, offering Jaebum an unnecessary hand which he takes anyway, then switches the light back on; it’s blinding initially, but they can soon see each other and, probably more importantly, the edge of the pathway. Jaebum’s about to start walking when Mark tugs him to a stop and steps in front of him. He cups his face with both hands and pulls him down into a kiss; his hands are freezing but his lips are warm and Jaebum all but melts into it, winding both arms around his waist and returning the chaste pressure. He grins when he pulls away, wiping at residual tear tracks on Jaebum’s cheeks with his thumbs before grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the path with a giggle; Jaebum flushes but can’t help smiling too.

They quickly pick their way back to the camp, Mark almost stumbling in his eagerness to get inside when he spots their caravan and he all but dives through the door to kick his shoes off and flop into bed, quickly gathering up the duvet and bundling himself in it. Jaebum’s a little more reserved, just padding in after him, though he does sigh in relief at the warmth filling the small space, quickly shutting the door behind him. Mark beams up at him from his duvet cocoon, only his face visible as he’s pulled it up over his head too; heart feeling about to burst with fondness, Jaebum sits on his own bed, pulling his shoes off too then drawing his legs up and wrapping his arms around them.

“Thank you for showing me that.” He murmurs, biting back laughter when Mark grins and shuffles in place, snuggling deeper into the blanket.

“You’re welcome. You always go to the viewports, I thought you’d like it.” He looks down, burying his mouth and nose in the blanket. “I didn’t mean to make you cry though.” Jaebum winces at his sheepish whisper, face heating up. 

“It- I never thought I’d ever get to see something like that in person, or- not through a window. I was just very happy, it was- good crying.” He mumbles shyly. Mark nods, or Jaebum thinks he does when the top of the blanket moves up and down, then he lifts his face from it and smiles again. Jaebum returns it, turning his head to rest his cheek on his knees, exhaustion washing over him.

“We should probably sleep.” Mark murmurs and promptly flops onto his side without even emerging from his cocoon, determinedly closing his eyes. Trying to suppress the urge to coo at how cute he’s being, Jaebum looks away and pulls his datapad out, tapping through various notifications until he gets to one from Youngjae; he apparently closed up with no issue and the cycle’s been relatively busy but nothing very interesting happened. Mildly reassured that his life isn’t going to come crashing down around his ears, Jaebum taps out a grateful reply and stuffs the pad back in his pocket, shedding his jacket and standing up to find his bag.

Mark’s already sound asleep and snoring softly into the pillow as Jaebum changes into what amounts to his pyjamas - another t-shirt and some sweatpants - and plops back onto his bed. Sleep already tugging at his eyelids, he smiles at his boyfriend as he lies down, smiles even wider at being able to think that to himself and closes his eyes.

He clearly falls asleep very quickly because the next thing he’s aware of is sunlight peeking around the curtain over the window in the door and Mark humming to himself as he washes his face in the tiny sink in the closet-like bathroom at the other end of the caravan. Yawning, Jaebum sits up, scrubbing at the back of his smushed hair and covering his mouth with the other hand. 

“Good morning.” Mark chirps, grinning over his shoulder. Jaebum mumbles a vague greeting back, only to be summarily startled into awareness by the fact that Mark’s not wearing a shirt. Heart suddenly thumping far too hard in his chest, Jaebum looks away and clears his throat, cheeks heating up. 

“What time is it?” He asks for something to say, picking his way out of the blankets and carefully avoiding looking at Mark. 

“Still fairly early, but Jackson wants to head up to the temple before it gets too busy.” Mark sounds amused but Jaebum doesn’t dare look over at him, suddenly and painfully shy. It’s kind of silly, but he finds he can’t really do anything about it so just grabs his bag and starts rifling through it for another pair of jeans and a shirt, just hoping that Mark won’t laugh at him. “How did you sleep?” Jaebum clears his throat and straightens back up, clothes in hand.

“I slept alright. You?” Why must he be so awkward? 

“Yeah, pretty well.” He's definitely going to start laughing. Jaebum closes his eyes and just despairs for a moment. He almost jumps out of his skin at a gentle touch to his arm, whips around wide-eyed to see Mark - thankfully now in a t-shirt - stood right behind him with an endeared grin on his face. “Relax. It's just me.” His smile softens into something more reassuring but that doesn't help at all; it's just Mark. Just Mark, with whom Jaebum is stupidly in love, in front of whom he absolutely doesn't want to look like an idiot but absolutely does. This is terrible. This was a terrible idea. And starting tomorrow he'll be in close proximity to Mark for the next four or so tendays while they visit the Aals system, which is an even worse idea.

Mark flicks him on the forehead. Jaebum recoils, clapping a hand to it and staring at him in betrayal.

“What was that for?” He splutters, rubbing the sore spot. Mark folds his arms and arches an eyebrow but he looks like he's still trying not to laugh.

“You were worrying again. But this time over something really stupid.” Jaebum huffs and looks away, glowering at the wall. Mark's fingers close around his wrist and tug his hand down from his face, then he grasps Jaebum's chin and physically turns his head back with the other to look at him. “Seriously. It's fine if you're nervous, I'm nervous too-" he doesn't seem so, the less generous part of Jaebum muses grumpily- “but please don't worry-" he flushes and laughs a little squeakily- “you can’t impress me anymore.” Well. Jaebum isn't sure if he should be insulted by that and it must show on his face because Mark goes pale and squeezes his wrist. “I- that came out wrong. I just- mean that you- you're already impressive. I'm always-” he stops and shuts his eyes tightly, seems to be struggling with what to say- “you're amazing. And I just meant that you- you impress me anyway. All the time, with everything. I just- love you. A lot.” He looks almost pained saying all that, eventually ends up mumbling but Jaebum's heart feels set to shred itself against his ribcage with how hard it's pounding and he has literally no idea how to respond to that, so he doesn't. Not verbally at least; Mark squeaks when he kisses him but recovers quickly, throwing both arms around Jaebum's neck and giggling when he can't help smiling.

“I love you too.” Jaebum mumbles, face heating up; Mark beams and cups his jaw between both hands, pressing kisses to his cheeks and nose before finding his lips again. A little clumsily - it's been a long while since Jaebum's properly kissed anyone - Jaebum returns the pressure, head tilting slightly as Mark does the same. It's nice and it's making Jaebum's knees feel a little wobbly and his stomach might flip over a little bit when Mark gently coaxes his lips apart, thumbs stroking his cheeks, but Mark's breathing comes out a little stuttered as they keep kissing so he can't be that bad. He shifts a little closer, hands dropping to wrap both arms around Jaebum's neck as the slide of their lips grows a little faster and more insistent; Jaebum just holds onto his waist to try and ground himself, closed eyelids fluttering.

There's a knock at the caravan door; Jaebum jerks and goes to stumble backwards but Mark obstinately clings to him, burying his face in his neck with a heavy sigh. 

“You guys up?” Jackson calls, half-shouting half-whispering like he's not sure whether he wants to actually wake them up. 

“Y-yeah, we'll be out in a bit!” Jaebum replies when Mark makes no effort to do so, still determinedly hiding. 

“Cool! We'll grab you some breakfast!” Jackson pats the door and presumably leaves. Jaebum sighs, looking down at the top of Mark's head, not entirely sure what to do now.

“Um-" Jaebum prods Mark's back- “you- you okay?” He just gets a grunt, then he straightens up and kisses Jaebum again, hard and assertive but not moving too much before stepping back with a rueful grin. Somewhat shell-shocked, Jaebum just blinks back at him.

“Bathroom’s all yours.” He says a little cheekily as he slips past to perch on his bed, tapping through something on his datapad. Trying to tug his brain back together, Jaebum just stands there for a long moment, then sighs, gathers his clothes up and trudges into the bathroom, pulling the rickety door shut behind him and dropping his stuff onto the sink to scrub his red face with both hands.

Showered and relatively more put together, Jaebum emerges from the bathroom - fully dressed, may he add - and stuffs his pyjamas into his bag. Mark's still in the same position on the edge of his bed but he perks up at the sight of Jaebum, stashing his datapad into his pocket and hopping to his feet. 

“Ready to go?” He chirps, bouncing excitedly on the balls of his feet. Jaebum can't help smiling as he grabs his shoes and undoes the lacing on them to shove his feet in.

“Almost.” 

True to their word, Jackson and Jinyoung pass each of them a paper bag full of pastries when they rendezvous at the centre of the camp, absently chatting about things Jaebum barely listens to as he focuses on eating - he's hungry, alright? - on their way back up to the digsite. The climb is just as unpleasant as before, possibly worse even as the freshly devoured pastries get stuck and give Jaebum a really awful stitch, but they do eventually get up to the town, strolling slowly towards the temple. This time not falling into the throes of a panic attack, Jaebum can actually appreciate it, marvelling over the buildings and the ornaments and the intricate mosaics and listening to Jackson's chattering about ancient religions and recent discoveries.

The temple is no less awe-inspiring now than it was before, but this time they don't head towards the statue room, instead leaving through one of the side doors in the entrance hall. They head through a short stone corridor lit by strings of tiny reddish lamps to a spiral staircase leading downwards, where Jackson flaps an arm for attention.

“Mind the stairs, they're kind of uneven.” He announces, grabbing Jinyoung’s hand and leading him down, Mark eagerly trotting after them with Jaebum bringing up the rear a little more cautiously. Jackson wasn’t lying; the steps are all over the place, roughly hewn and worn smooth in the middle and there’s no handrail, just smooth stone walls that do not offer great grip. It’s just a relief that the passage is well lit by all of the lamps and that they don’t encounter anyone coming up the stairs at the same time as they’re descending considering how narrow it is, but soon enough they reach the bottom.

The room is huge, stretching back away from them seemingly endlessly, split up by rows of stone panels attached to the floor and ceiling, like the rest of the room was carved out around them. More red lanterns hang from them, arcing between them and dangling a foot over their heads as Jackson, used to the sights and as such less affected, leads the group of them a little deeper inside. Awed, Jaebum follows on autopilot, squinting at the panels in the dim light; they’re covered in carvings, images and script from the floor to the ceiling. Several panels have people around them, clustered and shining brighter lights, some transcribing, others taking rubbings, some standing close by and muttering to each other, trying to work out some rudimentary translations. 

“Welcome to the story vault!” Jackson announces. Mark lets out a soft huff of amazement next to him and Jaebum just gapes up at all of the panels. “Each of these panels tells a different story, a lot of myths, legends, that sort of thing,” Jackson continues eagerly, everyone too awestruck to interrupt, “all the pilgrims would bring different stories with them, and these are the records of all of them.” 

“Wow.” Jinyoung whistles, craning his neck to look up at the nearest panel. Jaebum echoes the sentiment. Jackson puffs up proudly, linking arms with Jinyoung and leading him a little further inside.

“We have to stay near the entrance so we don’t get in anyone’s way, but I wanted you guys to see the room.” He says, gesturing back into the darkness. “I’m working on a few further back at the moment.” 

“This is incredible, Jackson.” Jaebum manages to say, fumbling blindly for Mark’s hand; he takes it and squeezes, beaming brightly when Jaebum glances back with a grin. 

As Jaebum expected, Jackson corners him; he does so during lunch, dragging him back down onto the bench as Mark and Jinyoung head over to the buffet tables. Jaebum shrinks under his probing gaze and tries not to look guilty. He doesn’t think he has anything to feel guilty about, but one can never be too careful. 

“How are you finding the trip?” Jackson asks quietly, gaze flicking away to shoot a fleeting grin in response to a passing greeting. Jaebum folds his arms on the table.

“It’s been great.” He says truthfully; it has, despite the lingering stress and anxiety. Jackson’s eyes seem to pierce his skin as though searching his deepest thoughts - he has a knack for reading people that Jinyoung often lauds and complains about in equal measure. 

“You know everything’s going to be fine, right?” He says gently. Jaebum nods, looking down with a frown. 

“I know.” He mumbles, staring down unseeingly at the table. Jackson reaches over to pat his forearms, grinning at him when he jumps and glances up.

“You seem happier.” He says simply, leaning back again and beaming wider when Jaebum coughs a sheepish laugh. “It’s nice. You deserve it, you and Mark both.” Jaebum scratches the back of his neck.

“Thanks.” He mumbles, his smile wide and a little silly. Jackson kicks him lightly under the table and hunches forwards again.

“While you’re gone, I’ll keep in touch with Youngjae, make sure everything’s going okay. And I know Jinyoung will drop in on him now and then too.” He murmurs, smiling warmly. “So you can go and enjoy yourself and we’ll take care of everything, I promise.” He lifts a hand, little finger extended. Jaebum just stares at him for a moment, eyebrows raised, but he just pouts and wiggles his hand insistently. Blowing out a breath, Jaebum raises his own hand and lets Jackson link their little fingers together and wiggle their hands from side to side, but a little bit of the weight squeezing his chest starts to ease.

“Thanks, Jackson.” He whispers, chuckling sheepishly when he coos and drops their hands back to the table, only to gasp when he lunges across and drags him into a tight hug.

“You’re really going off into space, Jaebum! I’m so happy for you!” He squeals into Jaebum’s ear, almost deafening him. Jaebum’s arms are being squashed against his side, or he would hug Jackson back; as it is, he just wheezes another thanks and heaves a breath when he’s rescued by a laughing Jinyoung and a curious Mark joining them at the table. Jackson however just leaps to his feet to gather Mark into an equally crushing hug, babbling about how excited he is for them both. Jinyoung slides into the bench opposite Jaebum and shoots him a knowing wink. 

The rest of the cycle is taken up by Jackson dragging them all around different parts of the monastery town and the upper levels of the temple; it seems like minutes have passed when Jaebum and Mark have to collect their bags and find the trucks, their shuttle ride back to Lanzhou scheduled for a couple of hours later.

“You really have to go already?” Jackson whines, clinging to both Jaebum and Mark, an arm around each of their necks. Spluttering a laugh, Jaebum pats his side as Mark wriggles next to him.

“Yeah we do.” Mark says simply, giggling when Jackson grumbles irritably but lets them go, a pronounced pout on his lips. Smile fond, Jinyoung winds both arms around Jackson’s waist and pulls him closer, chin settling onto his shoulder.

“Come back down when you get back.” Jackson demands sulkily, folding his arms over Jinyoung’s.

“We will.” Jaebum promises, smiling at Jackson who glares at the floor and presses his lips together so they don't wobble as obviously. 

“And message me the second you get back to Lanzhou, alright? When you get back up now and from wherever you two are going.” Jinyoung demands, though he looks a little misty-eyed too; Mark giggles quietly and takes Jaebum's bag from him, shuffling around to stash them into the back of the truck. 

“I will.” Jaebum repeats, sighing amusedly when Jinyoung extricates himself from Jackson to hug him instead like he's not a little choked up himself.

“Be careful asshole.” He sniffles into his jacket. Chuckling weakly, Jaebum nods, patting his back and smiling at Jackson, who's stopped pretending he's not crying. 

“It's about time you get to go with him, your pining was getting old.” Jackson sniffs. Jinyoung snorts a wet laugh and lets go of Jaebum, stepping back to take Jackson's hand and pull him back against his side. 

“Thanks.” It was supposed to be sarcastic, but it just comes out sincere and a little strangled; Jaebum clears his throat and almost jumps out of his skin at a gentle touch to his back. Mark slips past him to throw an arm around each of them, rocking side to side and mumbling something Jaebum can’t quite make out but that makes Jackson laugh and Jinyoung roll his eyes and shove him off.

“Get going already.” He barks, nose in the air. Grinning, Mark turns on his heel and grabs Jaebum’s hand, all but dragging him over to the truck door and pushing him inside. Jaebum huffs but settles into a window seat, waving out at the pair; they wave back, Jinyoung sensibly and Jackson extremely over-enthusiastically. Mark settles in next to him, leaning over with a palm braced on Jaebum’s thigh to wave too - Jaebum tells himself he’s flushed because it’s warm in the truck and no other reason - and the truck rumbles to life.

Jaebum remembers less about the journey back to the shuttle port than the journey from it simply because he’s panicking about the shuttle ride back up to Lanzhou. He’s coming to the conclusion that he might be a little scared of it. 

“Don’t worry,” Mark murmurs as they wait in line to check their bags in, “shuttles always suck. Proper FTL ships are much less rattly and they don't smell as much like fuel.” Well, Mark would know. “Though, uh-” he winces, shuffling closer to the counter and tugging Jaebum with him- “I say that, but the first time you jump… it’ll be unpleasant. But after that it’ll be fine!” He looks hilariously worried but it’s not like Jaebum is unaware of FTL sickness, he remembers the last - and only - time Jinyoung jumped out to meet a client. He had to come back and get one of his colleagues to deal with them since he was holed up in bed feeling incredibly sorry for himself for half a tenday. Since then he’s been conducting out-of-system cases remotely. 

“It’s okay, I-” he stops; they’re at the front of the line now. Handing his bag over, he digs his datapad from his pocket and scans his ID, stepping past the desk once it beeps a confirmation and the VI rattles off the code of their flight. Mark scoots through too when he’s done the same, automatically grabbing his hand and pulling him to the waiting room. “I’ll be okay, I’ll just- sleep through it.” Mark hums and relaxes a bit, plopping onto a rickety metal bench and dragging Jaebum down next to him. It’s an incredibly uncomfortable bench and there’s a thin layer of something sticky on it but it’s marginally better than standing up for the next half an hour while they wait for the shuttle to get prepped.

Mark’s head falls onto Jaebum’s shoulder and he pulls his hand into his lap, studying it closely and linking their fingers together, his thinner and longer than Jaebum's but still fitting perfectly between them. Unable to stop himself smiling, Jaebum looks around the waiting area. It’s not massive, but there’s only a couple of shuttles running at a time, this port isn’t huge. Even so, it’s quite busy, most of the other seats taken up and a few children running between them, a low level hum of chatter settling over them. As they wait, another flight is called, this one to a larger port somewhere else on Farla and about half of the people waiting stand up and bustle towards their terminal, but their vacated seats and spaces quickly fill up again. 

The half an hour passes slowly but eventually they get called to board. Mark keeps ahold of Jaebum’s hand, shooting him a reassuring grin as they climb the metal stairs under bright sunshine. Jaebum sighs and steels himself to suffer, though he at least makes quicker work of the seatbelts this time. Once again, he’s grateful that there are no windows as they take off, resolving to keep his eyes on the seat in front of him and his hand in Mark’s; Mark is thankfully more than amenable to this plan. 

“Hi can I help y- oh hi Jaebum!” Youngjae chirps when he walks into the shop, waving at him from behind the counter. It seems exactly the same as it always is, cluttered and a little stuffy and there's currently only one other person in here apart from him, Mark and Youngjae, a Ilaran with a cane and pince-nez glasses who's picking through some old books. 

“Everything alright?” Jaebum asks, worriedly looking over everything but attempting not to be obvious about it; it's not that he doesn't trust Youngjae, it's more that he's just riddled with anxiety. Thankfully Youngjae doesn't seem offended - he obviously noticed Jaebum's examination, his subtlety leaves something to be desired - and bustles out from behind the counter.

“Yeah, been busy at times but nothing untoward has happened.” He stretches and grins reassuringly. Jaebum breathes out and forces himself to relax, even if only outwardly. Mark's hand finds his back, rubbing little soothing circles onto it.

“Told you it would be okay.” He mumbles, a little smugly. Jaebum glares at him over his shoulder and trudges into the back, bead curtain chiming against itself as he parts it. His work bench is just as messy as he left it too - well, it looks messy but he does know where everything is - but he heads in further, dumping his bag onto his bed and gathering up some more clothes. Mark trails in after him, settling cross-legged on his bed and taking some of the clothes from him to fold them up. Youngjae starts humming from the counter, the only particular noise besides rustling fabric. 

“You're sure you want to go today? We can wait another couple of cycles if you want?” Mark eventually asks, quiet and uncertain. Jaebum places a pile of t-shirts into his bag and squashes them down before looking at him; he's fidgeting, staring fixedly at the stack of folded clothes in his lap.

“I'm sure.” And it's true. Incredibly true, even if he is utterly terrified about leaving and not looking forward to the FTL sickness. He's wanted this for so long, he's not going to delay it any longer. Mark glances up and seems reassured by whatever he sees on Jaebum's face; he smiles and passes his pile over. It takes a bit of shoving, but he manages to fit it into his bag and zip it up, grinning at Mark. 

“Okay.” Mark hops to his feet and grabs him, burying his face into his neck and squeezing him around the waist. Laughing, Jaebum hugs him back.

All packed - there’s not a lot he needs really - with his bag hoisted over one shoulder, he follows Mark out of the back and pauses next to Youngjae, who’s just propped against the counter reading something on his datapad. He looks up and beams.

“Are you heading out again then?” He asks. Jaebum nods, butterflies making a mess of his stomach.

“You sure you’ll be okay for-” Youngjae rolls his eyes and flaps a hand at him.

“Yeah, go, I’ve got this. Your instructions are very detailed, I’ll be fine.” Mark snorts behind him and it takes a lot of willpower not to glare back at him but Jaebum manages, just sighs and adjusts the strap on his shoulder. 

“Okay. I’ll- see you in a few tendays then.” Grinning, Youngjae bounces over and hugs him as best he can with the large bag in the way; Jaebum hugs back on autopilot, patting his shoulder and smiling back when he pulls away.

“Have fun!” He lightly shoves Jaebum towards the door and cackles when he over-balances and stumbles into Mark, Mark laughing too. Blushing brightly, Jaebum sighs and mumbles a goodbye, looking over the shop, the cluttered shelves and beat up counter and worn Terran lock on the door, as he leaves. It’s all rather scary, far worse than going down to Farla, but then Mark takes his hand and everything feels a little bit better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey thanks for reading!! hope u enjoyed and are looking forwards to going into space in the next chapter!!! please let me know your thoughts down below in the comments or on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jbibbles/) or [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/jbibbles)!! it really means a lot to me when people comment on these T~T


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're off into space!!! this is the last of my pre-written chapters so future ones may take longer than a week to get out, see the notes at the end for more on that but please enjoy this chapter!!

It’s been a long time since Jaebum’s been to the docks. The shuttle dock doesn’t count, it’s run by the station admin, a little removed from the civilian section where Mark’s ship is currently parked. He remembers  _ why  _ he hasn’t been down here a few minutes after he arrives, coughing into his fist and his eyes watering at the fumes from the fuel even after he puts his mask on. Mark’s not as bothered, though he does clear his throat occasionally, leading Jaebum down the row of bays and picking through the crowd. It’s not as busy as the markets but there are enough people here for Jaebum to feel a little claustrophobic, especially as he’s struggling to avoid smacking people with his bag.

Thankfully Mark’s ship isn’t too far - Jaebum’s never actually managed to come down and see it, never having had time and also not really wanting to watch him leave, so he’s not sure what he’s expecting. Probably something like what he sees; just a regular light craft stood up on its landing gear, patchwork grey and a little pockmarked in places with the hatch stood open and Bambam sat on the lip of it. He waves as they approach.

“Ready to go?” He asks brightly, clambering to his feet and holding his hands out; Jaebum passes his bag to him and nods, not sure he can actually speak right now because it's all feeling very real and altogether overwhelming. Mark hops up into the ship and holds a hand down for him to take; he does so gladly, leaning on him as he hauls himself up too and turning to look back at the docks. It's good that he doesn't come here often because it isn't that familiar; it might be a lot harder to go if he was looking out over his terrace or the markets or the parks but it's almost easy to turn his back on the bustle and chatter and exhaust fumes. Almost.

“Home sweet home.” Mark murmurs. Hoping he can't feel his hand shaking, Jaebum steps back from the airlock, keeping his eyes on the outside until it closes with a hiss and a clunk. Staring blindly at dark grey metal, he lets his breath out and drags in another. It smells odd, sweet initially but there's lingering metal and fuel underneath it, clearly someone's attempt at freshening the place up a bit.

“So you must be Jaebum then,” a voice chimes in, sweet and high-pitched and amused, “Mark doesn't shut up about you.” Mark stiffens as Jaebum jumps and wheels around but there's only the two of them outside the airlock, Bambam having left his bag on the metal floor and vanished deeper into the ship.

“Lisa, quit messing around!” Mark hisses, his face quite pink when Jaebum looks at him, confusion cutting through apprehension. There's a disembodied laugh then a light set into the wall beside them flickers on, a panel opening up and a smiley face appearing on the revealed screen. 

“But I'm so good at it!” Mark snorts and gestures at the panel with his free hand.

“This is Lisa. She's our AI.” The smiley face winks.

“Nice to finally meet you.” She chirps. 

“Mark talks about me?” Jaebum blurts; he can be excused for being slow on the uptake, it's been a stressful cycle. Lisa giggles and Mark groans, stomping over to the panel - dragging Jaebum with him - and forcibly sliding the hatch back down over it.

“Privacy please?” She laughs again but the light above the panel switches off. Huffing irritably, Mark turns on his heel and peers at Jaebum's face. “Are you okay? Are you sure you want to do this now?” He demands, cupping Jaebum's cheek with the hand not squeezing his. 

“I'm sure,” Jaebum replies automatically but honestly he's not so sure anymore and he's a little worried he's going to be sick before they even start moving, “I didn't know you had an AI.” It's an obvious deflection that Mark instantly catches because he's not an idiot; he frowns up at him, thumb stroking his cheek. Jaebum looks down. 

“Do you want to wait a cycle?” Mark asks a little more gently.

“No I- need to go. Or I just won’t.” He mumbles, closing his eyes and forcing himself to relax into Mark’s hands. Humming softly, Mark tugs him down into a hug, pressing a kiss to the side of his neck.

“If that’s what you want, we’ll go right now.” He murmurs, arms squeezing his shoulders; nose buried in his shirt, Jaebum nods slowly. “Okay. Lisa, tell Bambam to start warming her up, I’ll show Jaebum around.” Jaebum opens his eyes to see the light above the panel flick on.

“Sure thing Markie.” She chirps. The panel slides up again and the smiley face reappears to wink at Jaebum before the screen switches off. 

“Markie?” Jaebum mumbles, snickering weakly when Mark groans and wriggles out of the hug. 

“Don't you start, it's bad enough with her doing it.” He gripes, grabbing Jaebum's wrist and dragging him down the corridor. Their footsteps ring on the metal grille then turn to taps once they've left the entrance hatch and moved onto coated floors. “The ship's kind of small and old but I've had her years, I don't think I could get rid of her.” Jaebum smiles, looking around the bare corridors and peeking into doors. It seems they're in what little cargo space there is in the ship, a couple of rooms, mostly empty with a couple of boxes stacked in the corner of one. “We take odd jobs sometimes, usually delicate hauling or small cargo.” They reach a set of metal stairs and Mark trots up them, Jaebum stumbling after him having not expected him to take them so fast. “The engine room is back down there but it's probably best to leave that for now since Bambam's going to start her up.” Almost on cue, the ship rumbles, jerkily at first but smoothing out into barely a hum. Jaebum's hand vises on Mark's; this is really happening, he's really doing this. His heart pounds, a cold sweat breaking out on the back of his neck.

The ship starts to move, upwards and forwards. Jaebum realises he's stopped walking when Mark stands before him and takes his face between his palms. There's anxiety written in the furrow of his brow but he doesn't say anything, just searches Jaebum's face; Jaebum doesn't think he  _ can _ speak right now, but he finds that the icy fear and trepidation he felt about leaving seem to ease as they move, like he's leaving some of that back on the station and excitement starts to well up in the gaps they leave. He's going now, whatever happens. This, what he's wanted for standards, is finally happening.

Mark squeaks in surprise when Jaebum kisses him. He recovers admirably, giggling into it and slinging both arms around his neck as Jaebum clings to his sides, feeling for all the world like his heart's about to beat from his chest. His smile is infectious and Jaebum finds himself grinning too, too broadly for it to really be called a kiss anymore and it just makes Mark laugh harder.

“Ahem, cockpit to lovebirds, we're about to leave the station if you'd like to get your butts up here.” Bambam's voice crackles over the intercom and Mark bursts into squeaky laughter, breaking free to drag Jaebum away from the stairwell. 

The cockpit is fairly big, a bank of switches and dials and panels underneath a large window with room for two chairs in front of it, Bambam leaning forwards in the left hand one and gripping a joystick. Mark pulls Jaebum over to the other and pushes him down into it, bouncing on his heels behind him when he glances back confusedly; he looks excited, exceedingly so. Jaebum turns back to the front and looks out the window: they're still in the hangar, approaching the giant airlock with a few other ships. Humming to himself, Bambam draws them to a stop when a bright orange light turns on. There's an almighty clunk outside the ship, loud enough to make Jaebum jump, and then something starts hissing and his ears pop.

“Don't worry, it's outside.” Mark murmurs but Jaebum assumed that was the case since they aren't depressurising. There's another clunk and the airlock doors jerk open a crack - well it looks like a crack from here but it's probably several metres wide - to reveal inky darkness beyond. The orange light starts flashing as the doors slowly slide open, gradually revealing the space beyond, deep blue-black littered with bright points. Jaebum’s mouth drops open as it widens, Farla coming into view on the left, all bright white clouds and blue oceans and greenish brown landmasses. There's a shipping lane to the right, freighters and large craft creeping along with smaller ships winding between them, and beyond that the FTL gate, ships appearing from and vanishing into it with more queued up to use it.

“And away we go.” Bambam murmurs when the gates are fully open and the light switches off, the ship smoothly accelerating forwards towards the gate. Jaebum jumps at a gentle touch to his shoulder, letting out a huge breath and sucking in another when he realises he's been holding it.

“Come on, I'll finish the tour while we queue,” he says brightly, grinning, “Bambam, let us know when we're about to jump.” Bambam throws him a salute and winks at Jaebum. Walking backwards and staring out of the window until he physically can't anymore, Jaebum marvels. He's not sure why this view to the vastness of space isn't scary while one in the shuttle would be - it might be to do with the rattling and terror of the shuttle trip itself - but he doesn't think too hard about it, too busy gaping in awe at the spectacle. That's the whole galaxy out there. The whole universe even. His world has suddenly expanded from his tiny shop and Lanzhou station to  _ everything _ . 

Excitement bubbling in his chest, Jaebum grabs Mark's hand as he leads him from the cockpit, bouncing on each step giddily. Mark giggles and pulls him closer, grasping his elbow to keep him at his side.

“The kitchen and eating areas are through here-” Mark nods at a doorway to the right, the door itself slid open to reveal messy plastic-topped counters and metal chairs askew around a black table piled high with plates and containers- “over here is the lounge-” strewn with cushions pulled off the sofa and stacks of plastic cups on the floor- “and down here are the bedrooms and bathroom.” Two bedrooms and one bathroom. Bambam's is obvious, full of deconstructed small tech and piles of bright clothes but Mark's door stands shut. “I, um.” Mark pulls them to a stop outside it, squeezing Jaebum's arm nervously. “Are you okay with sharing with me? If not, I'm happy to sleep in the lounge, I don't mind-" Jaebum pulls his arm free to cup Mark's face and kiss his cheek; he's blaming his boldness on the excitement of the trip.

“I'm happy to share with you.” Mark relaxes and grins, leaning up to peck Jaebum's lips. 

“I'm glad.” He's blushing slightly as he turns to the door, tapping a code into the panel next to it and tugging Jaebum inside. “Passcode is 0601.” Jaebum barely registers it, too busy examining Mark's bedroom. He's never seen it before but it somehow fits him perfectly, cluttered and messy with knick-knacks and souvenirs everywhere, some even strewn on the right hand side of the double mattress in a corner, pictures covering almost every inch of wall space. There's a tiny window, barely a metre square, with the shutter pulled up, stars glittering through the glass and a line of tiny plants on the sill. Jaebum moves closer, peering down at them; they're all succulents, some similar to Terran species but others clearly from elsewhere, lacking green chlorophyll to instead have fleshy leaves in oranges and pinks and purples. 

“What do you think?” Mark chirps, beaming at him when he startles and glances back over his shoulder. There's something almost nervous to it though, slightly forced even; makes sense Jaebum supposes, he's always been self-conscious of letting Mark see the mess of his living quarters. 

“It's very you.” He murmurs, looking up at the ceiling and breaking into a ridiculous grin when he sees the glow-in-the-dark stars stuck to it over his bed. There's a window next to him that looks out onto the actual stars, but he still has these on his ceiling.

“Is that a good thing?” He laughs shyly, rubbing the side of his nose. Jaebum nods.

“Yeah.” He says simply but it's enough for Mark's lingering worry to melt away; he chuckles and looks down, smiling at nothing. Still looking around, Jaebum slowly wanders over, sitting down gingerly on the edge of Mark’s bed. The mattress is a little lumpy, but still nicer than his ancient one back at the shop. Bouncing on his heels, Mark joins him, sitting a little more in the middle and crossing his legs. Jaebum finds he can’t bring himself to look over, face warming up and palms sweating; he feels like a teenager with a crush all over again, nervous and jittery despite being a fully grown adult sat next to his actual boyfriend. 

“Okay the queue is bad-” Jaebum almost jumps out of his skin and off the bed at Bambam’s sudden grumble through the intercom, Mark collapsing to his back in laughter- “so we’ll be waiting a while. I’ll let you know when we’re about to jump.” There’s a click and static and the intercom goes quiet again. Jaebum shuffles fully onto the bed and sighs, curling into an embarrassed ball when Mark keeps giggling. 

“Are you done?” He mumbles into his own knees; snorting softly, Mark sits up and drapes himself over Jaebum’s shoulders, wiggling an arm between his chest and his thighs and squeezing tightly with his chin resting on his shoulder.

“I love you.” He giggles some more when Jaebum slumps and goes even redder. 

“I love you too.” Jaebum mutters reluctantly, prodding him in the stomach reproachfully. He squeals and lets go, but grabs Jaebum’s arm and tugs, pulling him further onto the bed to lie down next to him. He lets himself be manhandled, pillowing his cheek on his bent arm and closing his eyes with a sigh when Mark pokes his other cheek with his index finger and a mischievous grin on his face. “This is going to be a long trip, isn’t it?” He ignores the stupid smile spreading on his own face when this makes him laugh again and keeps his eyes shut. The prodding stops, gentler fingertips finding his jaw and trailing from his ear to his chin, curling underneath it to lift his head slightly, then warm lips press to his own. Jaebum grasps Mark’s wrist loosely and returns the gentle pressure, sighing quietly when they part for a second and opening his eyes. Mark smiles, soft and happy as his palm rests on Jaebum’s jaw, thumb stroking his cheek and Jaebum’s eyes flutter back closed when he leans forwards again.

Close to three quarters of an hour must pass before Bambam comes back over the intercom to announce they’re near the front of the queue; to Jaebum's chagrin he doesn't notice until he sits up and catches sight of the clock again. Mark giggles, patting at Jaebum’s hair where it was sticking up all over the place - entirely his fault, may he add, he was the one with his hands in it after all - and hopping to his feet to stretch with a groan. 

“You know what to expect from FTL?” Mark asks, offering Jaebum a hand to pull him up. He takes it with an uncertain shrug.

“Mostly, I've read up on it and you know, Jinyoung's motion sickness and everything.” He says sheepishly; Mark hums, linking their fingers together to tug him out of the room.

“Yeah, it’s going to be pretty weird. It’ll be a few cycles before we arrive and honestly the best way to get through your first trip is to sleep through as much of it as possible.” He says this almost guiltily, like it’s his fault that faster than light travel is notoriously unpleasant for first-timers. Jaebum nudges his shoulder and smiles when he glances at him.

“I’ll be fine.” He murmurs and, tentatively relieved, Mark smiles back.

The FTL gate looms ahead of them when they arrive back at the cockpit, a huge pockmarked metal thing with nothing but darkness through the middle, no stars visible through it like the rest of the space. As Jaebum watches, another ship flies into it, swallowed up by the blackness that ripples just slightly when he looks at it out of the corner of his eyes. He feels a touch nauseous just looking at it, so that may not bode well for the rest of the trip. 

“Ready to go?” Bambam chirps without looking away from the window, pressing all manner of buttons and guiding the ship forwards; Jaebum’s stomach lurches when he realises they’re next in the queue, but Mark’s hand in his helps assuage some of his anxiety. Bambam doesn’t wait for an answer though and the ship moves slowly forwards, approaching the gate. 

The whole frame of the ship jolts when the nose of it touches the field and they all sway backwards slightly as the ship speeds up as though it’s being pulled inside. The darkness covers the windows and the cockpit follows suit for a moment, lit only by the coloured LEDs and dials on the control panel before the lights flicker back on and they continue moving forwards, acceleration slowing to a steady speed. Jaebum registers this and that metal shutters are coming down over the windows, shutting out the darkness that somehow swims in his eyes and twists into shapes and colours he can’t quite make out, before he’s flat on his back staring up at Mark’s concerned face with Bambam chattering worriedly somewhere off to his left.

“You okay?” Mark asks softly; Jaebum flinches, his voice jarring and echoing strangely in his head. His vision feels weird too, he can’t quite focus on anything properly and moving his eyes makes him even dizzier. “It’s alright, this is normal. Bambam fainted his first time too.” There’s a squawk of embarrassed indignation from Bambam which makes Jaebum’s headache throb, but he smiles weakly anyway. Mark hovers anxiously as he gingerly pushes himself up - he almost flops straight back down again when all the blood rushes from his head, but manages to hold it together this time - and instantly wraps an arm around his waist when he’s staggered to his feet. He doesn’t actually think he’s going to faint again, but he doesn’t protest Mark’s help too hard.

“Go have a nap.” Bambam pipes up with a fleeting smile thrown over his shoulder. Jaebum nods and wishes he hadn’t when he wobbles even with Mark keeping him upright, vision shuddering like ripples on a pond. With a worried hum, Mark all but drags him out of the cockpit, hauling him along the corridor until his brain clicks into gear and his feet catch up with it.

“Lisa, could you-?” Mark doesn’t even get to finish his question before the door to his room is sliding open. “Thanks.” Jaebum flops into Mark’s bed the second his grip slackens, shuffling into the middle of it and curling into a ball, head in his hands. Even with his eyes closed, everything keeps spinning.

“No problem-” He hears Lisa chime in, continuing to say something else but his ears are ringing too much for him to really catch what she says. Stomach twisting into knots, Jaebum swallows down bile and concentrates on breathing, hoping that the dizziness will pass at least a little bit if he keeps still enough.

“Jaebum-” there’s a gentle touch to the back of his head, warm fingers combing through his hair- “I’ll let you sleep for now, if you need anything, just say it and Lisa will let me or Bam know, okay?” Mark says softly, dropping a kiss onto the side of Jaebum’s head when he groans an approximate yes and ruffling his hair. “It’ll pass, don’t worry.” He murmurs reassuringly and then his weight vanishes from the bed next to Jaebum and the door hisses open and shut again. The lights dim, less bright through Jaebum’s eyelids and he curls up a little tighter, pulling the duvet up over himself and hoping for sleep to come sooner rather than later.

Jaebum is more than a little disoriented when he wakes up, not least because he can’t really see very well right now. Head feeling like it’s stuffed with cotton wool, Jaebum slowly sits up and presses both palms to his temples, squinting around the darkened room; it’s then he remembers where he is and why he feels so shocking. He holds a hand to his chest as his heart kicks up a gear, pounding with both apprehension and excitement. Of course, this doesn’t make his head feel any better, worse in fact as it starts aching rather than just feeling strange and he still feels nauseous and dizzy, if slightly less so than before he slept.

Heaving a sigh, he drops his hands into his lap and peers around the room. The lights are off and it’s only lit by the glow-in-the-dark stars, the light leaking from underneath the door and the standby light of the TV screen in the corner of the room so everything’s in silhouettes and trying to see in the gloom only makes his head hurt worse.

“Uh- Lisa? Could you turn the lights on?” Jaebum says haltingly, feeling a little strange talking to the air, but the lights do flicker on, staying dim for now as a panel next to the door slides open to reveal a small screen with a worried looking emoji in the middle of it.

“How are you feeling?” She asks quietly, her volume clearly turned down. Jaebum shifts and rubs his eyes, wincing when his head throbs.

“I’m- okay.” He mumbles; he’s sure this could be much worse. “Could you let Mark know I’m awake? I might faint if I try and stand up.” He tails off, embarrassed to admit that; the worried face gets more worried but Lisa still chirps a yes, the panel sliding shut a moment later. Barely seconds pass before there’s a tentative knock on the door; Jaebum blinks at it blankly for a moment before realising he should probably answer. “Come in?” He offers, squinting against the brighter light as the door slides open and Mark pads inside to perch next to him. He’s breathing a touch heavier than normal as though he’d just sprinted the length of the ship. 

“You alright?” He asks anxiously, lifting a hand to press the back of it to Jaebum’s forehead then lowering it to his cheek, thumb caressing just under his eye. Jaebum nods gingerly, sighing when Mark remains unconvinced, eyebrows pulling together as he shuffles a little closer, both hands holding Jaebum’s face now. 

“I’ll be fine.” He mumbles, closing his eyes and melting forwards towards Mark. He hums softly under his breath, combing gentle fingers through Jaebum’s hair and pulling him closer until his head is tucked under his chin and he can wind his other arm around his back. One hand closing in the soft material of his t-shirt, Jaebum just concentrates on breathing, the waves of dizziness breaking slower and the pounding in his head abating a little bit, something he’s sure is entirely a placebo from the comfort of having Mark next to him but it’s welcome nonetheless. He hesitates for a moment before speaking up, chest tightening a little with anxiety over Mark’s answer, but then the worst that he can do is say no. “Would you- stay here? For a bit. If you’re not busy?” He mumbles, turning into his shoulder a little. Mark’s chest drops with a little puff of air before there’s a soft kiss against Jaebum’s head, gentle fingers stroking down to the back of his neck.

“Of course,” he murmurs, breath stirring Jaebum’s hair, “as long as you want.” Jaebum smiles, slowly sitting back up and wincing when the movement makes his head throb; Mark’s hand stays on his neck, thumb rubbing gentle arcs just under his ear. “Do you need any painkillers or anything?” He asks, worry tightening his forehead. Taking his wrist and tugging his hand down to hold it in his lap, Jaebum shakes his head.

“No, it’s more uncomfortable than painful-” he tugs on Mark’s hand, shuffling back into the bed; Mark follows, lying down next to him when he flops back onto his side- “I’ll just sleep a bit longer.” He sighs, eyes drooping shut again. Mark hums, fingers brushing his hair aside and lingering against his temple, skirting gently down the side of his face to press a palm to his cheek. Jaebum tries to keep his eyes shut, warmth rising up the back of his neck. The mattress creaks when Mark shuffles closer, hand leaving Jaebum’s cheek in favour of finding his waist and slowly rubbing up and down his side. Tentatively, Jaebum reaches out, fingers bumping Mark’s chest and twisting in his shirt, the tension slowly draining from him again.

“There you go, get some sleep.” Mark whispers, breath tickling Jaebum’s nose before a fleeting kiss is pressed to his forehead. Smiling slightly, Jaebum lets out a long sigh and does his best to do as he’s told.

Jaebum’s disorientation feels different when he wakes back up again from a vague nightmare he can’t quite remember but that he thinks stems from his fear of leaving his shop behind. His head is still stuffy, heart racing anxiously and he’s pretty sure he’ll be wobbling all over the place if he tries to stand up but he’s also now overheating something terrible, sweat beading on his forehead and sticking his t-shirt to his back. For a moment he can’t figure out why, wondering groggily if he’s actually ill as well as suffering FTL sickness, but then when he tries to sit up and finds he can’t, he realises it’s actually just because he’s tangled up with another warm body. Mark, despite being shorter than Jaebum and pretty slight with it, is surprisingly heavy and extremely warm, half draped over Jaebum’s chest with a leg slipped between his and his cheek squished against his shoulder. Jaebum blinks at the softly glowing stars on the ceiling and can’t help the stupidly broad grin that breaks over his face, chin resting on the top of Mark’s head. 

Mark doesn’t stir even when Jaebum gradually shuffles out from underneath him, the change of angle just making him snore into the pillow. Swaying slightly, Jaebum squeezes his eyes shut until his dizziness lessens then sighs and looks down at Mark. Heart thudding against his ribcage from fondness rather than anxiety this time, he combs Mark’s hair back from his forehead, fingertips brushing down his cheek, before wobbling to his feet and shuffling towards the door. It slides open before him and he squints at the light from the corridor, shielding his eyes with his hand as he heads to the kitchen.

The water tastes a little funny when he runs a glass full and sips it as he crosses into the lounge, slightly metallic but refreshingly cold. He carefully picks his way through the mess of plastic cups, empty wrappers and other detritus littering the floor to sit down against a bright pink beanbag, crossing his legs and pressing the glass to his forehead. It makes him shiver but it feels amazing against his overheated skin. He shuts his eyes, focussing on the cold and his breathing, one hand pressing to the floor to feel the rumbles of the engine. 

He’s not sure where they are in their journey or even what’s outside; it’s so hard to look out a window during FTL travel, the space between spaces playing tricks on the mind and showing shapes and colours that shouldn’t exist but somehow do. It’s fueled art and creativity for standards and there’s even a religion that claims the FTL space can show visions of the past and the future. It’s a little far-fetched but quite a cool idea, that time gets so twisted in FTL space that it can bleed through from the past or future. Who knows, maybe there’s some truth in it.

“Hey.” Jaebum almost jumps out of his skin at the greeting, water sloshing over the rim of his glass and spilling onto the carpet and his hair; Bambam bursts into raucous laughter, almost falling over himself and clinging to the door frame to keep himself upright. Heaving a long sigh, Jaebum wipes at his wet forehead and scrubs at his hair with his forearm.

“Hello Bambam.” He sighs. Still snickering, Bambam shuffles back over to the kitchen and opens up the fridge. Jaebum shuts his eyes again as he sips what’s left of the water in his glass.

“How are you feeling?” Bambam calls after a few moments’ rustling, a little quieter and genuinely concerned. Jaebum hums and rubs his eyes with the heel of his left hand.

“I’m okay. Still pretty wobbly, but a bit better maybe.” He says slowly. Bambam actually comes into the chill room this time and offers him another glass of water, a huge bag of some crispy snacks under his other arm. Jaebum takes it and shoots him a grateful smile.

“It’ll pass, just sleep through as much of this journey as you can.” He replies softly, plopping down into a big squashy beanbag chair next to him and opening his snack bag. He offers some to Jaebum but he refuses, not wanting to risk it with his nausea. “Anything else bothering you?” Bambam asks, practically diving into his snacks. Jaebum shrugs, tapping the glass in his hands.

“Just worried about my shop I guess.” He mumbles. Bambam hums around a mouthful, struggling to swallow for a moment before answering.

“I mean, that’s understandable. But it’s in good hands. And you’ll only be gone a few tendays.” All very reasonable, but not incredibly helpful. “But in the meantime, I’ve got like, seventeen different shows downloaded in here so you’re welcome to join me for a few hours to take your mind off it?” He offers, grinning brightly when Jaebum looks at him in surprise. This suggestion is much more helpful; Jaebum huffs a short laugh and nods, settling deeper into his beanbag. Bambam looks surprised then overjoyed, practically wriggling with delight. “Lisa! Fire up the projector!” He says and there’s a short giggle before the lights dim and a screen projects onto the large empty wall with a list of program titles. “Criticising trashy shows together is the fastest way to make friends, it’s bonding!” Jaebum laughs, louder this time as Bambam shuffles his beanbag a little closer and settles down.

“-Jaebum, wake up.” Jaebum jumps slightly, blinking groggily at Mark who’s gently shaking him awake. He sits up, wincing as his neck cracks, stiff thanks to the odd angle of the beanbag chair. Bambam is nowhere to be seen, presumably back in the cockpit or in his room, but Mark is crouched before him with a small grin. “You’ll hurt your back sleeping down there.” He stands and offers Jaebum a hand. He takes it and lets himself be hauled upright, muffling a yawn into his hand and listing gratefully into Mark’s steadying arms. Chuckling, Mark slowly walks him back towards his - now their, Jaebum supposes sleepily - bedroom where he contentedly collapses into the bed. Right now, he doesn’t feel too bad, just the nagging dizziness making him feel off-balance but nothing else bad enough to note. 

Mark clambers into the bed and lies next to him, on his side with his head on the same pillow as Jaebum’s. He reaches out, combing hair back off Jaebum’s forehead and smiling when he hums; Jaebum’s eyes slide shut and he sighs, still drowsy.

“Bambam said you were feeling a bit better.” Mark whispers. Jaebum nods, teetering on the edge of falling back to sleep. Mark hums, fingers skimming down the side of Jaebum’s face to curl at his jaw. “Good,” he murmurs, giggling softly when Jaebum cracks an eye open and wrinkles his nose at him, “only a few more cycles then we’ll be in the Aals system.” Jaebum hums vaguely, opening both eyes when Mark’s thumb brushes the corner of his mouth. He looks pensive but there’s a tiny smile playing on his lips.

“What?” Jaebum mumbles, a flush creeping up his neck under his scrutiny. Mark says nothing, smile pulling a little wider; his eyes sparkle in the low light, crinkling fondly when Jaebum makes an embarrassed noise and halfway turns into the pillow. “What?” He repeats, more forceful but mostly muffled into the fabric. Sharp little canines on display thanks to his now huge grin, Mark nudges his chin, wiggling fingers between it and the pillow to turn his head back to face him, holding his jaw to keep him in place when he leans forwards.

“Nothing,” he whispers against Jaebum’s lips, kissing him softly once before pulling back a couple of inches, “I’m just glad you’re here.” Wanting to hide his now burning face again but unable to, Jaebum laughs squeakily, reaching the tiny distance between them to grab a fistful of Mark’s t-shirt.

“Me too.” Mark, a little pink now too, lets go of Jaebum’s chin but moves forwards before he can take advantage and hide again, palm against his cheek as he kisses him. His lips are warm and soft and Jaebum’s part automatically underneath them, tugging on his shirt and smiling into the kiss when he shifts closer, pressing warm and solid against his chest. He wraps his arm around Mark’s waist, palm flat against his shoulder blade and feeling it shift when he in turn slips the hand on his cheek around to curl in the short hair at his nape, the other finding Jaebum’s between them as their lips move together, unhurried and smooth.

Jaebum jumps slightly when Mark’s tongue brushes his lower lip but he gradually relaxes into it, sighing breathlessly. He feels a little too hot pressed to Mark and tangled in the covers and his head is spinning, but that isn’t too unusual at the moment. Having one ear pressed into the pillow and muffling what he can hear really isn’t helping though, not when he’s already dizzy, so he shifts, tugging on Mark’s shoulder and twisting until he gets the hint. He chuckles airily, pink lips stretching into a grin as he does as he’s prompted and lets Jaebum roll onto his back, slotting one knee between Jaebum’s thighs to hover over him.

“Better?” He murmurs, but he doesn’t wait for an answer before kissing him again, propping himself on his elbows either side of Jaebum’s head. Humming a pleased affirmative, Jaebum reaches up for him, one hand tangling in his hair and the other sliding down his back. Mark’s teeth graze Jaebum’s lip before he’s slipping lower to mouth at his jaw; Jaebum’s eyes flutter open and he tips his head back to give him room to move.

Only for his eyes to snap shut again with a grunt as the whole room spins around him; he grabs Mark’s shoulder as his stomach lurches, clapping a hand to his mouth and desperately willing himself not to be sick. Mark scrambles upright and Jaebum feels fleeting touches to his arm and face before a hand presses to his forehead.

“You okay?” He asks, hushed and worried. Jaebum doesn’t answer, not daring to either move his head or open his mouth, but he flashes Mark a thumbs up. It mustn’t be very convincing because Mark keeps fluttering, pushing hair back off his forehead and stroking his forearm carefully. Thankfully the moment of nausea subsides soon enough and the room isn’t moving when he cautiously cracks an eye open. He takes his hand from his mouth and blinks at Mark; he’s pale-faced, eyebrows pulled together anxiously but his expression smooths a little when Jaebum smiles sheepishly.

“Sorry about that.” He whispers, breathing a sigh of relief when Mark rolls his eyes and prods his chest.

“Shut up dumbass,” he grumbles, “you should get some more sleep.” He climbs off Jaebum’s thighs and plops next to him, narrowing his eyes down at him when Jaebum whines and pouts up at him. He still takes Jaebum’s hand when he nudges his thigh with his knuckles, shuffling down lower to pull it into his lap.

“I’m not tired.” Jaebum huffs, trying to sit up and groaning when Mark pushes him back down with a glare. “I’m fine, really.” He insists, but Mark is unrelenting, keeping his hand on Jaebum’s shoulder until he keeps still. Glowering at the stars on the ceiling, Jaebum wipes his mouth on the back of his wrist. “I’m really not tired though, so you’d better entertain me if you won’t let me get up.” He mutters, not expecting Mark’s chuckle; he laces his fingers with Jaebum’s and traces patterns on the back of his hand with his other.

“If you promise you’ll stay still, I’ll tell you about our trip to Varda.” Mark murmurs. “I- didn’t really get a chance to tell you about it much before.” Before they argued; Jaebum squeezes his hand and smiles up at him when he glances down shyly.

“Sounds good.” Mark smiles back, lopsided and heart-breakingly beautiful, before settling more comfortably against the piled up pillows and beginning his tale.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading this chapter!! I really hope u enjoyed it!! please tell me what you thought down below or on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jbibbles/) or [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/jbibbles)!! I'll be honest, I've been struggling to write,, anything for this fic recently since I've been getting little feedback and while I know that's not the be all and end all of writing and I will eventually finish this on my own because I really do care about this story, it really does help motivate me if I see people actually like it,,, so please, if you have any thoughts, let me know!! I'd really appreciate it T~T <3 thanks guys!! I hope I'll see you soon with another chapter, but please bear with me if it takes me a bit longer <3


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the wait everyone T~T I really hope u enjoy this chapter!!

The next few cycles pass in much the same way. It’s hard to track the passage of time during FTL travel, sometimes hours pass in what feels like minutes while other times they feel like entire cycles and the lack of anything besides the interior of the ship doesn’t help; even the vast emptiness of space would give an indication of travel progress at least, but as it is none of them can look outside without feeling sick and disoriented. 

Jaebum’s FTL sickness doesn’t go away but it does get more manageable towards the end of the journey; he gets used to the stuffiness in his head and wobbling every time he tries to move and does indeed sleep most of the journey away but nonetheless is delighted when Lisa lets them know that Bambam is preparing to take them out of FTL space.

“You two can stay here,” she says brightly, the smile on her panel somehow sly and knowing, “Bambam says he’s fine to bring us into the Aals system on his own.” Jaebum is pleased by this as he is currently very comfy, curled up on their bed with his head pillowed in Mark’s lap. Mark doesn’t even shift and keeps petting Jaebum’s hair as he answers.

“Thanks Lisa, tell Bam to let me know if he needs a hand.” He says. Lisa’s smiling emoji winks.

“Will do.” She chirps and the light above her panel blinks off, the cover sliding back into place. Jaebum curls up a little tighter, turning his face into Mark’s thigh to hide an excited smile; they’re nearly there, nearly in the Aals system. Soon he’ll be standing on his second planet and it’s one with so much history, the Aals system is  _ famous _ and he’s going to go there. It doesn’t seem quite real, like all this is some fever dream and he’s going to wake up back in his shop, but the warm brush of fingers through his hair again, tugging on tangles hard enough to sting cements that it is indeed real.

“Sorry.” Mark winces, bending over him to grimace apologetically at him. Jaebum unfurls, shuffling to lie on his back and smile up at him. "What?" He laughs when Jaebum doesn't say anything, a slight flush appearing high on his cheeks. Jaebum nudges his thigh, eyes drifting from his face to the stars on the ceiling.

"What do you normally do when you reach somewhere new?" He wonders quietly. Mark hums and prods Jaebum's cheek, grinning when he huffs and glowers at him. 

"I spend a few cycles just looking around. Then I just figure it out." Jaebum rolls his eyes fondly; of course he does. That's the most Mark thing he's ever heard. "What do you want to do?" He asks. Jaebum hums, lips twitching up.

"I'll follow your lead." He murmurs. Mark coos and pinches his cheek, bursting into high-pitched laughter when Jaebum just sighs and shuts his eyes. 

The change when they leave FTL space is instantaneous and immediately relieving; for the first time in half a tenday Jaebum can see straight. His whoop of joy is a little too loud and Mark leaps almost the length of his room in shock, but it's so worth it to be able to stand up without immediately falling over. 

"Feeling better?" Mark laughs, a hand clapped to his chest. Jaebum nods, bouncing to his feet and stretching his arms over his head; not being dizzy really is underrated. 

“Hey guys-” both of them jump this time when Lisa chimes in; her panel slides down, revealing a crying-laughing emoji- “sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.” She chirps, laughter barely contained. Mark groans, grabbing a pillow off the bed and crushing it to his red face to shout wordlessly into it. “Bambam wants you in the cockpit. He says you’ll want to see this.” The face on the panel changes to an innocent smile with a halo above it before the panel slides closed and the light above it winks off. Willing his racing heart to calm down, Jaebum looks at Mark hopefully. He tosses the pillow aside with a sigh, then hops to his feet and grabs Jaebum’s hand; there’s a growing smile on his face, like he knows what’s waiting for them in the cockpit.

Bambam lifts a hand to wave back at them without looking away from the scene beyond the front windows of the ship. Jaebum can’t either; he dimly registers Mark tugging him further inside when he stumbles to a stop in the doorway. The ship has just exited the FTL gate into the heavy stream of small-craft traffic stretching out towards the two stations visible orbiting the planet taking up most of the right half of the field of view. Each station bristles with ships, from tiny crafts like Mark’s up to huge freighters and there are more still entering and leaving the planet’s atmosphere in bursts of re-entry light. The planet itself is breathtaking, reddish-brown landmasses carved by deep blue seas and dotted with sprawling cities sparkling with lights. There are three more planets in the space beyond, the closest glittering green and the others silhouetted against the blue star in the centre of the system. It’s almost too bright to look at, even with the windows filtering most of the light. 

“Welcome to the Aals system.” Bambam chirps. The ship shudders slightly as they accelerate away from the gate and into a lane heading down to the planet’s surface. 

“Ready for planet number two?” Mark murmurs, nudging Jaebum’s arm with his elbow. Jaebum gulps and nods. He realises two things when he opens his mouth to reply; one, that he’s smiling uncontrollably and two, that he’s crying again. He snaps his mouth shut again, but his sniffle attracts Mark’s attention anyway. He squawks wordlessly, scooting around to Jaebum’s front and his hands fluttering near his face like he’s not sure he can touch. Jaebum sniffs again and scrubs his face on his arm but his stupid tears don’t want to stop flowing. 

He’s gathered into a tight hug, not from the front as he would expect, but from the side; his eyes pop open to see a shock of white hair and Mark stood shocked in front of him. 

“Why are you crying?” Bambam asks, muffled into Jaebum’s shoulder. Mark’s stunned paralysis breaks and, his expression torn between concerned and a little amused, rounds Jaebum’s other side, hugging him and patting Bambam’s arm as well. His cheek squishes against Jaebum’s other shoulder. 

Jaebum bursts into laughter. He’s not entirely sure why, just something about this situation tickles him in his somewhat emotionally compromised state, and it doesn’t stop his crying, just exacerbates it in fact. He hangs his head, covering his face with one hand - the other stuck against his side thanks to a now anxiously cooing Bambam limpeted against him - and sniffling pathetically. Mark rubs his back and Bambam squeezes a little tighter and Jaebum wishes the floor would swallow him up. 

“I’m fine,” he mumbles in protest, trying and failing to wriggle his arm free, “really. I’m just- happy.” And terrified, but he doesn’t add that part. He thinks they probably know though, because neither of them let go until he’s stopped hiccoughing and no longer needs to wipe his eyes. Or rather, Bambam lets go, while Mark just moves behind him to wrap both arms around his waist and rest his chin on his shoulder.

“Everything’s going to be fine.” Lisa, who Jaebum had completely forgotten about, chimes in softly; Bambam nods, eyes huge and worried and Mark squeezes him gently. Jaebum sniffs and nods.

“I know, I’m being silly.” He chuckles wetly, offering Bambam a sheepishly grateful smile. He frowns and plops back down into his chair.

“You aren’t.” He says simply before turning back to the console and tapping at some buttons. “You’re allowed to be upset, or happy, or scared or whatever. It’s a big moment.” Jaebum swallows hard and nods even though Bambam can’t see him.

“Ah, when did you get so wise?” Mark coos, squishing his cheek against Jaebum’s neck and snickering at the rude gesture Bambam throws back over his shoulder. Jaebum smiles shakily, hugging the arms around his waist and relaxing back into Mark’s grip as they approach the planet; he hums softly, twisting to press a kiss to the side of his neck.

“Coanor ground control is requesting identification, Bam.” Lisa chirps; Bambam starts humming softly to himself as a panel opens on the dashboard. He types in a code and Mark tugs Jaebum over to the other seat, gently pushing him down into it. 

“Strap in, we need to prepare for reentry.” He says quietly, folding down a third seat from a section of the wall behind Jaebum and plopping into it too. Jaebum fumbles with the harness, managing to strap it into place after a couple of minutes’ failure and lifting his head to see the planet looming large before them. Awed, he watches clouds drift across continents and oceans, the glittering lights of the cities glow up at them encouragingly, the shipping lanes in the distance hustle and bustle about their business, heading up to the station still visible. 

“Visors lowering.” Lisa says. There’s a clunk and a hiss from above the windows and thick metal slats begin to roll down over them. A holographic display flickers to life in front of Bambam once they’re down, showing the same image that they saw before but without the blinding glare as they enter Coanor’s atmosphere. It’s smooth to begin with but soon the ship begins vibrating, Bambam having to wrestle with the joystick at times. Jaebum clings to his seat, shuttle anxiety rearing its ugly head, but it never gets as rattly and seems to end much faster; soon enough their trajectory levels and the shaking stops. 

“We did it!” Mark whoops, leaping out of his chair and bounding over to Jaebum to drape himself over his shoulders. Jaebum laughs as he’s shaken side to side, grabbing Mark’s arms and clinging to him; Lisa coos and Bambam snorts, but the glance he shoots back at them is just as excited.

“I’ll sort out landing permits and parking fees and stuff, you guys go look around when we touch down.” He says, somehow sounding excited at the prospect of paperwork. Mark just shakes his head when Jaebum glances back at him.

“Don’t ask, Bam’s always liked sorting legal stuff.” He mutters. Lisa giggles as Bambam puffs himself up, tossing his hair back off his forehead with a huff.

“He just likes arguing with port officials.” Lisa says conspiratorially, laughing again when Bambam squawks. 

There’s a hiss and another clunk from the windows as the visors rise; Jaebum leans forwards, sitting higher in his seat and craning his neck to look. The ship is flying above the ocean, heading towards a distant glittering city clinging to the horizon. Jaebum gapes down at it, scrabbling with his seat belt to free himself and stand up to see it better; the ocean is so big, it just keeps going as far as the eye can see, dark and sparkling in the bluish light from the sun in the cloud-scattered sky.

“Oh! Off to the left, to the left!” Lisa screeches, almost scaring Jaebum over the console in front of him; Bambam screams, standing up and pointing to the left too. Jaebum and Mark both scramble around to the other side of the cockpit, hanging out over the console to peer out the window.

“What?!” Mark yells, grabbing Jaebum’s shoulders and peering out alongside him. Jaebum’s not sure what they’re supposed to be looking at until there’s movement from the surface, a spray of water blasting up into the air before a triangular shape appears, attached to something large and off-white. 

“Lisa what is that?!” Bambam squawks excitedly. Jaebum watches open-mouthed as the creature - it’s  _ huge,  _ almost as long as Mark’s whole ship - crests a little higher out of the water then sinks back below the surface.

“I don’t know, let me look it up!” She yells back just as excitedly. As they continue watching, there’s another, smaller spray of water and another fin and another much smaller body breaches the surface too. Jaebum gasps and Mark hops up and down, pointing out the window.

“There’s a baby!” He shouts. There are simultaneous coos from both Bambam and Lisa and Jaebum squishes up to the window, watching the creatures until they vanish from view.

“They looked a bit like whales.” Bambam muses, typing something else onto the screen in front of him when Jaebum finally peels himself away from the window. Mark eagerly takes his place, no matter that the creatures are gone. Jaebum doesn’t actually know what a whale is beyond knowing the word from Terran stories and articles, so he just nods and takes his word for it. 

“They’re pretty similar actually!” Lisa pipes up, going on to chatter about the species and its biology and behaviour. Jaebum admittedly doesn’t pay too much attention, but that’s just because they’re starting to approach the distant city proper; it’s huge and tall, glass and metal and glowing lights. The ship veers to the side, flying along the seafront - there are  _ beaches _ here - towards the hive of activity that is the spaceship dock.

The actual docking process is tedious, a lot of waiting around for full ship scans and briefs on decontamination procedures of cargo and facts and figures about the planet - standard gravity, day/night cycle of 17.8 standard hours each, oxygen-nitrogen-carbon dioxide atmosphere, biocompatible with humans, 5.6 billion inhabitants - and a spiel of local laws and customs in adjunct to standard Collective law. By the time it ends Jaebum’s bouncing in place, desperate to get outside and breathe the air of  _ another  _ planet; Mark joins him, alternating between squeezing him around the waist and hanging over the back of Bambam’s chair before he’s inevitably chased off for being annoying. 

Eventually though, the ship lands with a shudder and Bambam stretches his arms up in the air victoriously. Mark whoops and grabs Jaebum’s hands, dancing in place as the engine ceases to rumble. 

“We made it!” Lisa crows; there’s a metallic hiss and a hatch in the wall slides open. A metal sphere floats out of it, a little panel set into the front showing an emoji with an open-mouthed grin and curvy eyes. Bambam jumps to his feet, hurrying over to detach the couple of wires leading from the sphere to the back of the hatch from which it emerged. When freed, the sphere does a few laps around him, a pair of triangular flaps like cat ears flipping up from the top.

“Lisa’s drone.” Mark supplies when Jaebum stares blankly at it.

“I’m not going to sit here doing nothing while you all have fun!” Lisa chirps, voice emanating from a speaker on the drone instead of the intercom. Bambam pats the sphere, a bright grin on his face. 

“Want to come with me to the docks’ office?” He asks, conspiratorial like it’s an inside joke. Lisa scoffs and butts the drone into his arm.

“Of course.” The drone turns, showing another huge smile to Jaebum and Mark. “No offense-”

“You just like Bambam more than us, we get it.” Mark sticks his tongue out at her and laughs squeakily when she does the same electronically. He grabs Jaebum’s arm and drags him away and down the stairs to the cargo bay. “Who said you could come with us anyway?” He calls back cheekily, skidding to a stop before the closed bay doors and slapping the open button; Jaebum almost crashes into him, just managing to steady himself with a laugh when Mark shoots him a slightly sheepish but mostly just excited glance.

The doors crack open, then slide aside, revealing the metal grille floors of a bustling hangar. Mark, vibrating with excitement, pulls Jaebum forwards, releasing his hand at the last second to leap out of the ship. He throws his arms up in the air with a whoop when he lands, spinning around with them still thrown wide and a huge grin on his face. Laughing but a little more reserved, Jaebum cautiously jumps out, landing with a thud and straightening up to be dragged into a huge hug. 

“We made it!” Mark enthuses, soft but joyous, into his ear. Jaebum squeezes him back, staring wide-eyed out over the docks. They’re huge, far larger than those of Lanzhou Station, full of ships from tiny craft like Mark’s up to massive haulers carrying cargo from the planet’s surface up to massive transports in orbit. They’re full of people too, bustling down gangways and in and out of ships and the transport hub linking to shuttles and trains and taxi ranks, out into Coanor proper. It makes the crowds on Lanzhou, in the markets or the docks, look deserted.

Mark breaks from the hug to grin at him and yank him away from the ship. Jaebum follows, staring wide-eyed over the docks as they join the crowds heading towards the transport hub. There’s an ID checkpoint between them and it, covering this whole wing of the dock; Mark drags Jaebum into the queue and immediately starts fidgeting impatiently, bouncing on his heels and every so often pushing up onto his tiptoes to crane his neck over the crowd. Jaebum, less bothered by waiting now as he’s dazed just looking around, laces their fingers together and tugs him closer whenever he bounces a little too far away, his hand warm and grounding in a situation where Jaebum could use something familiar. 

Soon enough they reach the front and, IDs checked and dock passes issued and bundles of welcome brochures pressed into their hands, they’re freed and released into the transport hub. To free his hands to flick through the brochures, Mark links arms with Jaebum, almost skipping as they head towards the train station. 

“Where do you want to go? The markets are open and we’ll need to pick up some stuff to sell back on Lanzhou but we’ve got ages to do that, so do you want to look around the city first?” He chirps, glancing up from the glossy pages with a hopeful look. Overwhelmed by noise and the flashing signs and advertisements lining the station, Jaebum blinks wide eyes at him. His enthusiasm dims slightly, worry and regret taking its place. “Sorry, I- you okay?” He says softly. Jaebum swallows and nods, offering him a weak smile. Mark frowns, tugging his lip between his teeth before he sets off walking again, pulling Jaebum towards a particular platform. “Let’s head out of the city for a bit,” he says decisively, dragging Jaebum towards a ticket booth, “there’s a few nature reserves and smaller towns further up the coast, they should be a bit quieter.”

Sure enough, there are fewer people on the platform alighting a train heading out of the city; Jaebum breathes a little easier once they’re sat down and away from the crowds. Mark studies him anxiously.

“I’m okay,” he mumbles, nudging him with his elbow when he remains unconvinced, “I just don’t like big crowds, I’m fine.” Mark looks reluctantly reassured, taking his hand and settling back into his seat. 

“Okay, but we’ll take it slow.” He says softly, shooting him a smile. Jaebum flushes but nods, closing his eyes and tipping his head back against the seat. 

The journey only takes half an hour. The train slides to a silent stop with a gentle jolt and Mark and Jaebum stand up, following the few other people getting off at their stop; a town called Gerston-upon-Sea in Common. The air is full of salt and wind and the cawing of seabirds, even still inside the station. Mark pulls him along and soon they’re outside, facing a street of salt-bleached houses and the beach and ocean beyond.

Mark gasps and sets off running, dragging Jaebum along behind him. Squawking and stumbling behind him, Jaebum manages to tug him into a slower pace, spluttering a laugh when Mark starts whining and pulling on his hand. 

“Come on, I want to go in the sea!” He pouts, prodding Jaebum in the arm. 

“We can, just- we don’t need to run.” Jaebum chuckles. Mark huffs but settles down and Jaebum takes a deep breath, smiling at the warmth of the sun against his face. It’s a pretty town and the beach is even prettier, rolling dunes peppered with hardy grasses and tiny yellow flowers smoothing into pale grey sand, waves lapping gently in the light breeze. They walk down a stone-hewn ramp from the street to the beach itself, but before Jaebum can step onto it Mark pulls him to a stop.

"Take your shoes off!" He chirps, kicking off his trainers and dragging off his socks. Jaebum, peering suspiciously at the sand, does so more cautiously, wincing at the rough stone beneath his feet, before stepping forwards. The sand squishes beneath his feet and between his toes, warm from the sun and dry this far from the sea, dotted with tufts of grass and small stones. He wiggles his toes, burying them under the sand; even so close to the surface, it's already cool, protected from the heat of the sun.

"Come on!" Comes a shout; Jaebum looks up to see Mark halfway down the beach already with his shoes in one hand, the other waving over his head. Jaebum can see the beam on his face even from here. His own shoes clutched in his right hand, Jaebum starts off after him, slipping and wobbling on the sand. It's hard to walk on, sliding and giving out under him, but as he nears the sea and it gets wetter and more compacted, it becomes easier.

Mark has dropped his shoes a little way out from the tide, his t-shirt carelessly discarded beside it; he's already calf-deep in the sea, cargo pants rolled up above his knees but spattered with water already from his splashing around and whooping. Heart squeezing fondly, Jaebum sets his shoes down too and bends over, hoisting his jeans up and turning the hems over themselves until they're approximately at his knees.

Mark’s stood waiting for him when he straightens up, a grin bright enough to rival the sun above him on his face. He bounces in place as Jaebum approaches, jogging over with one hand raised to shield his eyes against the glare.

“Come on!” Mark wheedles when he pauses at the waterline, eyeing the tiny waves suspiciously. He bounds over, grabbing Jaebum’s arm and tugging. “It’s nice, I promise!” He insists, grinning innocently when Jaebum frowns at him. Still, he does want to go in; he laces his fingers with Mark’s and takes a cautious step forwards as the wave washes backwards, only to gasp and stumble backwards when it swashes forwards over his feet:

“It’s so cold!” He screeches, swatting Mark’s arm when he doubles over cackling. There’s no escape though as another slightly bigger wave gets him up to his ankles; he must look like such an idiot, hopping around and running away from the sea, but he finds himself laughing along with Mark, though he tries to put on as grumpy a face as he can muster.

“Come on, it’s not that bad,” Mark wheezes, clambering after him and wrapping both hands around his wrist to tug him back towards the water, “it’s refreshing!” He says this with a smug grin as Jaebum, grumbling, stomps alongside him, hissing when the water hits his feet again but toughing it out this time. Soon his feet go numb and it stops feeling so cold, but every wave that comes in a little stronger to wet a little higher up his shin has him shivering. Mark squishes into his side, chin on his shoulder as Jaebum looks out over the sea, staring out towards the horizon. 

“It’s beautiful here.” He murmurs. Mark hums, an arm snaking around Jaebum’s waist and squeezing.

“It is,” he whispers, “but I think it looks even better with you here with me.” Jaebum huffs, chin dropping and warmth spreading over his cheeks.

“Don’t say stuff like that.” He mumbles, glowering down at his feet. He wiggles his toes into the sand, ignoring Mark’s finger prodding his cheek.

“Why not?” Mark asks, far too cheerfully. “It’s the truth.” Jaebum doesn’t answer - he doesn’t  _ have _ an answer - but Mark isn’t discouraged, gentle fingers finding his chin and lifting it, turning it towards himself. He’s smiling, a light dusting of pink on his own cheeks too. 

Jaebum twists, grabbing a fistful of Mark’s shirt to keep him still and kissing him when he looks like he’s about to say something else silly. He squeaks, warm palms cupping Jaebum’s face and he looks a little dazed when Jaebum pulls away.

“Thank you for bringing me with you,” he says, quiet but firm, “I love you, Mark.” Mark blinks quickly, tears filling his eyes and a beautiful broad smile coming to his face. 

“Thank you for coming with me,” he whispers, reaching for him to drag him into a hug, face burying in his throat, “I love you too, Jaebum.” With his feet in the sea, the sun beating down onto him and the wind blowing his hair into a tangled salty mess, Jaebum smiles, drops a kiss onto Mark’s head and closes his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so... the end :( I've really loved writing this story despite my struggles with getting this chapter written, this and antique boy are two of the fics i'm most proud of and I've got a lot of really lovely support for them, so I really hope this ending is a good one for all of you <3 I do have an idea for an epilogue, but as to how long that'll take... i'm really not sure :( so I hope all of you enjoyed this!! as always, please let me know what you thought down below in the comments and on on [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/jbibbles) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/jbibbles/)!! thank u again for your support!!

**Author's Note:**

> i will do my best to update this weekly!! I have two more chapters fully written but im also trying to finish melt too, so be patient with me if I'm a bit late <3 and please let me know your thoughts!! u can do so down below or on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jbibbles/) or [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/jbibbles)!!


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